Section sign

§ Section sign
Punctuation apostrophe ( ’ ' ) brackets ( [ ], ( ), { }, ⟨ ⟩ ) colon ( : ) comma ( , ) dash ( ‒, –, —, ― ) ellipsis ( …, ..., . . . ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop/period ( . ) guillemets ( « » ) hyphen ( ‐ ) hyphen-minus ( - ) question mark ( ? ) quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ”, ' ', " " ) semicolon ( ; ) slash/stroke/solidus ( /, ⁄ ) Word dividers space ( ) ( ) ( ) (␠) (␢) (␣) interpunct ( · ) General typography ampersand ( & ) at sign ( @ ) asterisk ( * ) backslash ( \ ) bullet ( • ) caret ( ^ ) dagger ( †, ‡ ) degree ( ° ) ditto mark ( 〃 ) inverted exclamation mark ( ¡ ) inverted question mark ( ¿ ) number sign/pound/hash/octothorpe ( # ) numero sign ( № ) obelus ( ÷ ) ordinal indicator ( º, ª ) percent etc. ( %, ‰, ‱ ) pilcrow ( ¶ ) prime ( ′, ″, ‴ ) section sign ( § ) tilde ( ~ ) underscore/understrike ( _ ) vertical/broken bar, pipe ( ¦, | ) Intellectual property copyright symbol ( © ) registered trademark ( ® ) sound recording copyright ( ℗ ) service mark ( ℠ ) trademark ( ™ ) Currency currency (generic) ( ¤ ) currency (specific) ( ₳ ฿ ₵ ¢ ₡ ₢ ₠ $ ₫ ৳ ₯ € ƒ ₣ ₲ ₴ ₭ ℳ ₥ ₦ ₧ ₱ ₰ £ ₹ ₨ ₪ ₸ ₮ ₩ ¥ ៛ ) Uncommon typography asterism ( ⁂ ) tee ( ⊤ ) up tack ( ⊥ ) index/fist ( ☞ ) therefore sign ( ∴ ) because sign ( ∵ ) interrobang ( ‽ ) irony punctuation ( ؟ ) lozenge ( ◊ ) reference mark ( ※ ) tie ( ⁀ ) Related diacritical marks whitespace characters non-English quotation style ( « », „ ” ) Book  · Category  · Portal

The section sign (§, Unicode U+00A7, HTML entity §), also called the "double S", "sectional symbol" or signum sectiōnis, is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code. It is frequently used along with the pilcrow (¶), or paragraph sign. When duplicated, as §§, it is read as the plural "sections" (§§ 13–21), much as "pp." (pages) is the plural of "p.". The likely origin of the section sign is the digraph formed by the combination of two S'es (from the Latin signum sectionis).

Like the dagger (†) and double dagger (‡), it is also sometimes used to link to a footnote where the asterisk (*) is already in use on a given page; however, these usages are declining in favor of numbered footnotes, usually linked by a superscripted and/or square bracketed number.

Typing character

• In Unicode, it is encoded U+00A7 § section sign (HTML: § §)
• Emacs: C-x 8 S
• HTML: §
• Mac OS CSA (Canadian French) Keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+S
• Mac OS U.S. Keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+6. U.S. Extended Keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+5
• Mac OS U.K. Keyboard layout: § key.
• TeX: \S
• US-International keyboard layout and UK-International keyboard layout: AltGr+⇧ Shift+S
• Ubuntu alternative to US/UK keyboard option: AltGr+⇧ Shift release OS; Ctrl+⇧ Shift+UA7↵ Enter
• Vim, in insert mode: Ctrl+K, SE; Ctrl+V, 167
• Windows Alt code: Alt+0167; Alt+21; Alt+31509 (on numeric keypad)
• X Window System, with a compose key: Compose+S+O, or Compose+!+S
• X Window System, without a compose key: Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U00A7

Other uses

A modified version of the section sign is used throughout the Sims series of computer games, as the symbol to the game's fictitious currency, the simoleon.

See also

• Scilicet