semiatic

Keyboard symbol · A caret or a bent line

⌃ Control key symbol

Our drawing, not Apple’s or Microsoft’s artwork.

⌃ is the Control key on a Mac. It is not the key for copy and paste: on a Mac those use Command. Control-click is the Mac’s right-click.

The symbol
⌃
Name on a Mac
Control (or Ctrl)
Name on a Windows PC
Ctrl, but Apple maps most PC Ctrl shortcuts to Command, not Control
Unicode
U+2303 UP ARROWHEAD
In HTML
⌃
Where the key is
Bottom row, left side: between Fn/Globe and Option on Apple laptop and Magic keyboards.

What Apple says

  • Control (or Ctrl) ⌃ Apple Support, Mac keyboard shortcuts, list of modifier-key symbols under Using keyboard shortcuts
  • Press and hold the Control key, then click an item to perform a right click. Apple Support (Mac User Guide), Windows keys on a Mac keyboard, table row Windows key
  • Control-H Delete the character to the left of the insertion point. Or use Delete. Apple Support, Mac keyboard shortcuts, Control-H, text-editing shortcuts

On a Windows PC

  • Control → Command Swap in Command for Control for many common shortcuts used on a Windows PC. For example, press Command-C to copy or Command-S to save a document or file. Apple Support (Mac User Guide), Windows keys on a Mac keyboard, table row Control

The character: U+2303 UP ARROWHEAD

To type or paste it anywhere, copy this: ⌃. It is U+2303 in Unicode, named UP ARROWHEAD, shown in the code chart Unicode Consortium, Code chart: Miscellaneous Technical, U+2300 to U+23FF, U+2303

The Unicode names list gives this character no annotation beyond its name. Unicode Consortium, NamesList.txt, The Unicode Standard 18.0.0 (character names and annotations), U+2303

Related characters:

  • ⎈ U+2388 HELM SYMBOL annotated “control”, from ISO/IEC 9995-7

In the ISO keyboard standard

The ⌃ on Mac keys is a plain up arrowhead. The Unicode names list gives ISO/IEC 9995-7’s own Control symbol as U+2388 HELM SYMBOL (⎈), annotated “control”. Unicode Consortium, NamesList.txt, The Unicode Standard 18.0.0 (character names and annotations), block headers “Keyboard symbols from ISO/IEC 9995-7” and annotations

The standard itself: ISO/IEC (catalogue entry), ISO/IEC 9995-7:2009 Information technology — Keyboard layouts for text and office systems — Part 7: Symbols used to represent functions, catalogue entry

Other symbols of the same shape

⌥ OptionU+2325

More keyboard symbols

⌘ CommandU+2318⇧ ShiftU+21E7⇪ Caps LockU+21EA⎋ EscapeU+238B⇥ TabU+21E5⌫ Delete (Backspace)U+232B⌦ Forward DeleteU+2326⏎ ReturnU+23CE⏏ EjectU+23CF⇞ Page UpU+21DE⇟ Page DownU+21DF⇱ HomeU+21F1⇲ EndU+21F2🌐 Fn / GlobeU+1F310

Sources

Each line in quotation marks is copied from the page named, read on the date shown. Unicode names and code points are copied from the Unicode names list and code charts.