semiatic

Keyboard symbol · A caret or a bent line

⌥ Option key symbol

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

⌥ is the Option key on a Mac, which Apple also calls Alt. It types special characters and changes what other shortcuts and menus do.

The symbol
⌥
Name on a Mac
Option (or Alt)
Name on a Windows PC
Alt (Apple states it)
Unicode
U+2325 OPTION KEY
In HTML
⌥
Where the key is
Next to Command on both sides of the space bar, one key further out.

What Apple says

On a Windows PC

  • Alt → Option Enters special characters, such as é. Apple Support (Mac User Guide), Windows keys on a Mac keyboard, table row Alt
  • On keyboards made for Windows PCs, press the Alt key instead of Option, and the Ctrl key or Windows logo key instead of Command. Apple Support, Mac keyboard shortcuts, note under the modifier-key list

The character: U+2325 OPTION KEY

To type or paste it anywhere, copy this: ⌥. It is U+2325 in Unicode, named OPTION KEY, shown in the code chart Unicode Consortium, Code chart: Miscellaneous Technical, U+2300 to U+23FF, U+2325

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+2325

Related characters:

  • ⎇ U+2387 ALTERNATIVE KEY SYMBOL the ISO/IEC 9995-7 symbol for Alt

In the ISO keyboard standard

ISO/IEC 9995-7 draws the Alt key differently: the Unicode names list puts U+2387 ALTERNATIVE KEY SYMBOL (⎇) in its block of keyboard symbols from ISO/IEC 9995-7. ⌥ itself is not in that block. 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

⌃ ControlU+2303

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.