Section sign

§
Section sign
Punctuation apostrophe ’  ' brackets [ ]  ( )  { }  ⟨ ⟩ colon : comma ,  ،  、 dash ‒  –  —  ― ellipsis …  ...  . . . exclamation mark ! full stop, period . hyphen ‐ hyphen-minus - question mark ? quotation marks ‘ ’  “ ”  ' '  " " semicolon ; slash, stroke, solidus /  ⁄
Word dividers interpunct · space
General typography ampersand & asterisk * at sign @ 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, per mil % ‰ plus and minus + − basis point ‱ pilcrow ¶ prime ′  ″  ‴ section sign § tilde ~ underscore, understrike _ vertical bar, pipe, broken bar |  ‖  ¦
Intellectual property copyright © sound-recording copyright ℗ registered trademark ® service mark ℠ trademark ™
Uncommon typography asterism ⁂ hedera ❧ index, fist ☞ interrobang ‽ irony punctuation ⸮ lozenge ◊ reference mark ※ tie ⁀
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Other quotation styles (« »  „ ”) Diacritics Logic symbols Whitespace characters
In other scripts
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Category Portal Book

The section sign (Unicode U+00A7 § section sign, HTML §, TeX \S) is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code. It is also called "double S", "hurricane", and "sectional symbol".

The likely origin of the section sign is the digraph formed by the combination of two S glyphs (from the Latin signum sectiōnis). When duplicated, as §§, it is read as the plural "sections" (e.g. "§§ 13–21"), much as "pp." (pages) is the plural of "p.".

It is frequently used along with the pilcrow (¶), or paragraph sign. 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 (this function can also be provided by numbered footnotes, usually put in superscript or square brackets).

Typing character

• RFC 1345 mnemonic: SE
• Linux iBus RFC 1345 entry method: SE&
• Emacs: C-x 8 S
• Vim, in insert mode: Ctrl+K SE or Ctrl+V 167
• Windows
  • US/UK-International keyboard layout: AltGr+⇧ Shift+S
  • AZERTY keyboard layout: § key
  • Alt code (on numeric keypad):
    • Alt+0167 ANSI
    • Alt+21 OEM
    • Alt++A7 Unicode
• Mac OS
  • UK keyboard layout: § key
  • US keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+6
  • US extended keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+5
  • CSA keyboard layout: ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+S
• X Window System (Unix/Linux)
  • Compose+S+O
    • Ubuntu: AltGr+⇧ Shift SO
    • Kubuntu: US-International keyboard layout/UK-International keyboard layout: AltGr+⇧ Shift+S
  • GTK+ also Compose+!+S, but produces Ṣ elsewhere
  • Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U00A7
    • Ubuntu: Ctrl+⇧ Shift+UA7↵ Enter
• iOS: 123, hold & until alternative § is displayed

In popular culture

A modified version of the section sign is used in SimCity 3000 and subsequent Maxis games (such as The Sims series) as the symbol of the in-game currency, the simoleon. The symbol is used in a similar way to the $ sign.

The section symbol is used in the 2012 computer game XCOM: Enemy Unknown as a nationality-neutral currency symbol.

The section symbol is used to denote chapters and sections in David Foster Wallace's novel The Pale King, which deals heavily with the labour and lives of American IRS workers and was left unfinished at his death in 2008.

The section symbol is used by horse racing rating service Timeform to denote a horse is unreliable. Such a horse is usually referred to as a "squiggle horse".

A § is used before text to change its style or colors in Minecraft.

See also

• Scilicet

References

Media related to Section signs at Wikimedia Commons