TextAuraArrow Symbols
Copy and paste arrow symbols → ⇒ ➜ ↻ in every direction and style.
What Are Arrow Symbols?
Arrow symbols are text characters, such as ← ↑ → ↓, that point in a direction, and you can copy and paste them from the tool above into any app, bio, document or message. Each one is a real Unicode character, so it pastes as text, not as an image.
An arrow is a graphical symbol or pictogram used to point or indicate direction. In its simplest form it is a triangle, chevron or concave kite fixed to a line segment. More detailed arrow signs copy the look of a real arrow with feathers, like ➵. The direction always runs along the line toward the pointed end.
The grid above gathers the arrows people search for most: plain direction arrows, double arrows, heavy arrows, curved arrows and decorative styles. Tap one and it goes straight to your clipboard. Because these are standard symbols, they also mix well with fancy text from our Font Generator, so you can frame a styled name or point a caption toward a link.
How Do You Copy and Paste Arrow Symbols?
To copy an arrow symbol, tap it in the grid above, then paste it with Ctrl+V on a laptop or a long press and Paste on a phone. One click is all it takes, and nothing has to be installed in your browser.
The grid has a search box, so you can type a word like “curved” or “double” and narrow the list. Arrows you copy appear in the Recent row, and you can save the ones you reuse as favorites, which keeps them one tap away the next time you open the page.
On a desktop, hover over a symbol to see it larger before you copy. On a phone, tap it and a small notice confirms the copy, the same way a Copy button works on other sites.
Once copied, the arrow behaves like any letter. You can drop it into a bio, a profile name, a message, a spreadsheet cell or a slide. If you want more marks to pair with it, our Cool Symbols page has stars, hearts, brackets and dividers in the same copy-paste layout.
What Types of Arrow Symbols Are There?
Arrow symbols come in a few main categories: basic direction arrows, double and heavy arrows, curved and circular arrows, and special paired arrows. Large character sites split these further into dozens of smaller groups based on shape.
The bigger references sort arrows into groups such as harpoon, stroked, waved, ribbon, shadowed, feathered and triple arrows. There are also keyboard arrows, the tab key arrow ↹, bow and arrows, arrowheads on their own, and lone arrow shaft pieces. Other groups cover the hand pointing index, 90 degree turns, circled arrows, navigation arrows and arrow to bar shapes that stop at a line.
A miscellaneous group catches the rest: arrows inside triangles, arrows with dots, and shapes that do not fit anywhere else.
For everyday writing you only need a handful of these. Basic arrows handle directions, double arrows show results, curved arrows suggest repeat or return, and the decorative ones add style. The sections below walk through each family with examples you can copy straight from this page.
Which Arrows Are the Basic Direction Arrows?
The basic direction arrows are the up arrow ↑, down arrow ↓, left arrow ← and right arrow →, plus the left right arrow ↔ and the up down arrow ↕. Their official names are leftwards arrow, rightwards arrow, upwards arrow and downwards arrow.
The four diagonal arrows complete the set: north west arrow ↖, north east arrow ↗, south east arrow ↘ and south west arrow ↙. That gives simple single-headed arrows 8 directions in total, with 2 horizontal, 2 vertical and 4 diagonal.
Each base arrow also has variants. An arrow with stroke, like ↚ or ↛, crosses out the direction and is common in logic. A two headed arrow such as ↠ has a second head on the same end, an arrow with tail like ↣ adds a small tail, and an arrow from bar such as ↦ starts at a vertical line. The ↹ pair of arrows against bars marks the Tab key. That last one means “maps to” in maths.
These arrows are the safest choice for any app because nearly every font includes them, so they rarely break or turn into empty boxes.
What Are Double, Heavy and Long Arrows?
Double arrows have two lines in the shaft, like ⇒ ⇐ ⇑ ⇓ and ⇔, and they often stand for “therefore” or “if and only if”. Heavy arrows such as ➔ ➜ ➤ ➥ and ➨ are thick, bold shapes that work well as bullet points and pointers.
The ➔ character has the official name Heavy Wide-Headed Rightwards Arrow, which tells you how specific Unicode names are. Many heavy arrows come from the Dingbats set, designed for print decoration.
Long arrows, like ⟵ ⟶ ⟷ and ⟹, live in their own range starting at U+27F5. They differ from short arrows both stylistically and semantically. In maths, short arrows are used for limits, as in x → 0, while long arrows are used with transforms, such as the Fourier transform. The glyphs look similar, but the meaning changes.
Twin arrows put two arrows side by side, like ⇉ and ⇇, and a triple set such as ⇶ stacks three. These paired shapes are handy for showing two-way traffic or swapping items.
What Are Curved, Circular and Harpoon Arrows?
Curved arrows bend back on themselves, like ↩ ↪ ⤴ and ⤵, and circular arrows such as ↺ ↻ ⟲ ⟳ and ⭮ turn in a circle. People use them to suggest refresh, undo, redo, repeat or return.
The ↶ and ↷ pair show a half-turn left or right, which is why many editors used them on undo and redo buttons. The ↵ arrow is the classic return or Enter key sign. For 90-degree turns, ↰ and ↱ show a path that goes up and then turns.
Wavy arrows such as ↝ have a curvy shaft, and the zigzag arrow ↯ looks like a lightning bolt. Some writers use ↯ to mark electricity or a sudden change.
Harpoon arrows have only half an arrowhead. The ⇀ character is named Rightwards Harpoon Barb Upwards, and its partner ↼ points left. Stacked harpoons like ⇌ and ⇋ are standard in chemistry for a reaction that runs both ways. If you need a clean set of arrows for notes or diagrams, this group is one of the most useful in the grid.
What Are Decorative Arrows and Arrow Emoji?
Decorative arrows are styled shapes made to look good rather than to give a strict direction, such as feathered arrows ➳ ➶ ➹, the ribbon-like ⮵, the teardrop-barbed ➺ and the wedge-tailed ➼. They suit headings, bios and bullet lists.
The ➳ character is named White-Feathered Rightwards Arrow. There are also shadowed arrows like ⇦ and ⇨, and thick block arrows such as ⬅ ⬆ and ⬇.
Before arrows became common, writers used the manicule, a small pointing hand. Unicode still includes it, as ☞ (White Right Pointing Index) and ☚, and both work well in text when you want an old-fashioned feel.
Arrow emoji show up in colour on phones. The signal set includes 🔙 BACK, 🔚 END, 🔛 ON, 🔜 SOON and 🔝 TOP, while 🔄 🔀 🔁 and 🔂 are the familiar refresh, shuffle and repeat buttons from music apps. The ➡️ emoji is the colour form of a plain arrow. If you are building a cute bio, pair these with our Heart Symbols or Star Symbols for a softer look.
How Do You Type Arrow Symbols With Alt Codes?
To type an arrow with Alt codes on Windows, turn on NumLock, press and hold the Alt key, type the number on the numeric pad, then let go. For example, Alt 26 gives → and Alt 25 gives ↓.
These codes come from the old PC character set, so they only cover a small group of arrows and filled arrow shapes. Use your left hand for Alt and your right hand on the number pad. The top row of number keys does not work for this.
| Arrow | Name | Alt code |
|---|---|---|
| ← | Leftwards arrow | Alt 27 |
| → | Rightwards arrow | Alt 26 |
| ↑ | Upwards arrow | Alt 24 |
| ↓ | Downwards arrow | Alt 25 |
| ↕ | Up down arrow | Alt 18 |
| ↔ | Left right arrow | Alt 29 |
| ↨ | Up down arrow with base | Alt 23 |
| ► | Rightwards filled arrow | Alt 16 |
| ◄ | Leftwards filled arrow | Alt 17 |
| ▲ | Upwards filled arrow | Alt 30 |
| ▼ | Downwards filled arrow | Alt 31 |
For any arrow not in this table, copying from the grid is faster. Character sites also list each symbol’s code in a Technical details section if you need it.
How Do You Type Arrows on a Mac, iPhone or Android?
On a Mac, press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer (Emoji & Symbols), search for “arrow”, and double-click the one you want. On iPhone and Android, the emoji keyboard has arrow emoji in its symbols tab, and Gboard has them in the same place.
The Mac viewer covers far more than emoji. Expand it and you will find a full Arrows category with plain, double and decorative arrows, each with its name shown.
Phones are more limited, because the emoji keyboard mainly offers the colour versions like ⬆️ and ↗️. For plain text arrows, copy them from this page instead. On iPhone you can also set up text replacement, so typing a shortcut such as “rarr” turns into →. Go to Settings, General, Keyboard, then Text Replacement.
In Microsoft Word, use Insert, then Symbol, and pick the Arrows subset. Word also changes –> into → by AutoCorrect in many versions. For a quick count of how the arrows affect your post length, paste the text into our Word and Character Counter.
What Are the HTML Codes for Arrow Symbols?
Every arrow can be written in HTML with a named HTML entity, a decimal code or a hex code. The right arrow, for example, is →, → or →, and its CSS code is \2192 for use in a content property.
Toptal’s HTML arrows reference lists 296 arrow characters with all four codes, which makes it a good bookmark for web design work. Common named entities are easy to remember because they spell the direction:
| Arrow | Named entity | Decimal | Hex |
|---|---|---|---|
| ← | ← | ← | ← |
| ↑ | ↑ | ↑ | ↑ |
| → | → | → | → |
| ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ |
| ↔ | ↔ | ↔ | ↔ |
| ⇒ | ⇒ | ⇒ | ⇒ |
| ↵ | ↵ | ↵ | ↵ |
The ↵ entity is the carriage return arrow used on Enter keys. Not every arrow has a named entity, so for the rest use the decimal or hex form. If your HTML document is saved as UTF-8, you can also paste the arrow itself straight into the code.
How Many Arrow Symbols Are in Unicode?
There are more than 600 arrows in Unicode, spread across several blocks, and the number grows as new versions add symbols. In 1991, the first release, Unicode 1.0, contained 130 arrows.
The main Arrows block occupies the hexadecimal range U+2190–U+21FF. Other blocks with many arrows are Dingbats, Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows, Supplemental Arrows-A, Supplemental Arrows-B and Supplemental Arrows-C, which starts at U+1F800. Smaller groups sit in Combining Diacritical Marks, Miscellaneous Technical, Geometric Shapes and Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms. Even programming has a few, such as ⍈, the APL Functional Symbol Quad Rightwards Arrow.
Most of these are horizontal arrows, like 🢠 and 🢡, but there are upward and downward versions too, such as 🠕 and 🠗. Each arrow has a code point, and character sites list the official Unicode names. You can check the official Unicode Consortium code chart for the Arrows range in this Unicode Arrows chart, which lists every character by number and name.
What Do Arrows Mean in Math, Logic and Science?
In mathematics, an upward arrow shows an increase and a downward arrow shows a decrease. In mathematical logic, → means the material conditional (“if… then”), the bidirectional ↔ means “if and only if”, ↑ is the NAND operator and ↓ is the NOR operator.
NAND is the negation of conjunction and NOR is the negation of disjunction. Arrow notation in logic is fairly new. David Hilbert introduced the arrow for logical implication in 1922, and Albrecht Becker introduced the double-headed arrow for logical equivalence in 1933. Arrows with a stroke, like ⇏, show that something does not follow, which is why they help define logical flows.
Knuth’s up-arrow notation stacks arrows, as in ⇈, to write tetration, which is iterated exponentiation. In quantum physics, up and down arrows show electron spin, and an arrow over a letter marks a vector. Physics diagrams also use arrows for force. In programming, Haskell writes arrows as -> in function types and has an Arrow type class.
In chemistry, arrows show a chemical reaction: 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O means hydrogen and oxygen react to make water. An equation for electrolysis turns this around, with a ↯ spark above the arrow.
Where Did the Arrow Symbol Come From?
The arrow as a direction sign is fairly modern and does not seem to pre-date the 18th century. Before that, medieval writers used the manicule, a pointing hand, to draw attention to a line of text.
Maps had their own markers. Around 1505, Portuguese mapmaker Pedro Reinel first used the fleur-de-lis to show north in a compass rose, while marking east with a cross is older still.
One early printed arrow appears in Bernard Forest de Bélidor’s treatise L’architecture hydraulique, printed in France in 1737. There, arrows show the flow of water and the rotation of a water wheel. Mapmakers later used arrows to show the direction rivers flow.
In the mid to late 19th century, arrows moved toward abstraction, and the fletching at the back was dropped, a trend later seen in the work of Paul Klee. John Richard Green’s A Short History of the English People (1874) included maps by cartographer Emil Reich that showed army movements with curved lines and solid triangular arrowheads. That style is very close to the arrows we type today.
How Are Arrows Used in Signs, Graffiti and Design?
Arrows are recognised everywhere as direction markers, which is why they lead signage and wayfinding in public places, from airports to road surface markings. A two-way road is often shown as ↕ or ⇅.
Designers like arrows because they are understood across languages. One small arrow can replace a whole sentence on a sign or button.
Arrows also matter in graffiti, where they show up in simple tags and in complex wildstyle pieces as a way to add movement. Graffiti theoretician RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ described arrows as ornaments that “armed” the letters. Philadelphia writer Cool Earl began using arrows in 1967, and New York writer SJK 171 may have been among the first to use them. Mare139 has since turned the idea into 3D sculptures of arrows.
For a longer read on this story, J. R. Finkel’s “History of the Arrow” in Up Down Left Right (2011) is often cited. In your own designs, try an arrow next to a bold heading from our Bold Text Generator to guide the eye.
Where Can You Use Arrow Symbols in Text?
You can use arrow symbols almost anywhere you type: navigation menus, instructions, social media captions, decorative headings and quotes. They guide the reader to the next step without extra words.
Here are common uses:
- Navigation and menus: “Click the arrow → to go to the next slide” or “Scroll up ↑ for more.”
- Instructions and guides: “Follow the steps below ↓” or “Use the arrow keys to move your character.”
- Social media: “Link below ↓” in captions, or a ➟ to point at your Instagram link.
- Decorative text: a ➜ before quotes and headings.
Arrows pair well with emoji: an arrow with a check mark shows a step done, with a heart it shows love on the rise, with a star it marks a milestone, with fire it says prices dropped, and with an hourglass it warns of a deadline.
For a retro feel or apps without emoji, use ASCII arrows like ->, =>, <- and ^. Arrows also fit inside kaomoji, such as (→_→) for a side-eye, (↼_↼) or ←(•‿•)→. You can even draw text art for a workflow, like START ↓ [Step 1] → [Step 2] ↓ END. Find more faces on our Kaomoji page, or style your Discord name with our Discord Fonts.
What Is the Right Arrow Symbol?
The right arrow symbol is →, with the code point U+2192 and the official name rightwards arrow. You can type it with Alt 26 on Windows or write → in HTML.
There is also ➡, U+27A1, which is a black right arrow from the Dingbats block. When an app adds the variation selector U+FE0F after it, the character switches to emoji presentation and shows in colour as ➡️. Without the selector it stays in a plain text style.
So if you want a clean, thin arrow that matches your font, copy →. If you want a bright, coloured arrow that looks like an emoji, copy ➡️. Both are free to copy from the grid above, and both work in posts, comments and chats.
Why Do Some Arrow Symbols Show as Boxes?
An arrow shows as an empty box, often called tofu, when the font on that device has no glyph for it. The character is still there, but the phone or computer has no shape to draw.
This is a missing glyph problem, not a copy problem. Your device tries a fallback font, and if none of its installed fonts include that symbol, a box appears.
It happens most with newer arrows, such as those in Supplemental Arrows-C, and on older Android phones or an old operating system. Basic arrows like ← → ↑ ↓ almost never break because every font has them.
If a friend sees boxes, ask them to update their phone, or switch to a more common arrow. When you need arrows for a public bio, stick to the basic and double sets for the widest support.
Can You Use Arrow Symbols in Usernames and Bios?
Yes, you can use arrow symbols in most usernames and bios, including an Instagram bio, a Discord nickname and a TikTok bio, because they are standard Unicode characters. Some platforms are stricter about the username field than the display name.
Instagram usernames, for example, only allow plain letters, numbers, periods and underscores, so arrows belong in your name and bio instead. Gamer tags vary by game, and some will strip a symbol they do not support.
Keep in mind that each arrow counts toward the character limit, and some emoji arrows count as two characters. A short arrow like → takes less room than ➡️.
If you want a full name idea first, try our Username Generator, then add an arrow at the start or end. For a styled bio, mix a few fonts from our Instagram Fonts tool and use one arrow to point to your link.
How Do You Find the Meaning of an Arrow Symbol?
To find an arrow’s meaning, mouse over it on a character site to see its official name, or open its symbol page for full details. The name usually tells you its shape, and the context tells you its meaning.
Most arrows do not have one fixed meaning. A ↗ can mean growth or trending up in a chart, a direction on a map, or simply north east. A ↘ can mean a decline in prices or a south east route.
The same idea goes for logic and maths symbols, where the field decides what the arrow means. In a recipe, → might mean “then”, while in a physics diagram it might show force.
When in doubt, choose the simplest arrow that matches your point. Readers understand plain arrows instantly, and fancier shapes work best as decoration.