# Multiplication sign

(Redirected from ×)
×
Multiplication 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 ÷
multiplication sign ×
ordinal indicator º ª
percent, per mil  % ‰
plus and minus + −
equals sign =
basis point
pilcrow
prime
section sign §
tilde ~
underscore, understrike _
vertical bar, pipe, broken bar |    ¦
Intellectual property
service mark

฿¢\$ƒ£ ¥

Uncommon typography
asterism
hedera
index, fist
interrobang
irony punctuation
lozenge
reference mark
tie
Related
In other scripts
"×" redirects here. It is not to be confused with the letter X.
"Times sign" redirects here. It is not to be confused with sign of the times.
The multiplication sign

The multiplication sign or times sign is the symbol ×. The symbol is similar to the lowercase letter x but is a more symmetric saltire, and has different uses. It is also known as St. Andrew's Cross[1] and dimension sign, or into sign.

## Uses

In mathematics, the symbol × (read as times or multiplied by or into[2]) is primarily used to denote the

• Multiplication of two numbers
• Cross product of two vectors
• Cartesian product of two sets
• Geometric dimension of an object, such as noting that a room is 10 feet × 12 feet in area, where it is usually read as "by" (for example: "10 feet by 12 feet")
• Dimensions of a matrix

In biology, the multiplication sign is used in a botanical hybrid name, where it is read as "cross".

The multiplication sign is also used by historians for an event between two dates. When employed between two dates, for example 1225 and 1232, 1225×1232 means "no earlier than 1225 and no later than 1232". It can also be used in a date range: 1225×1232–1278.[3]

## History

The × symbol for multiplication was introduced by William Oughtred in 1631.[4] It was chosen for religious reasons to represent the cross.[5]

## Similar notations

The letter "x" is sometimes used in place of the multiplication sign. This is considered incorrect in mathematical writing.

In algebraic notation, widely used in mathematics, a multiplication symbol is usually omitted wherever it would not cause a confusion: "a multiplied by b" can be written as ab or a b.

Other symbols can also be used to denote multiplication, often to reduce confusion between the multiplication sign × and the commonly used variable x. In many non-Anglophone countries, rather than ×, the primary symbol for multiplication is U+22C5 dot operator, for which the interpunct · may be substituted as a more accessible character. This symbol is also used in mathematics wherever multiplication should be written explicitly, such as in "ab = a⋅2 for b = 2"; this usage is also seen in English-language texts. In some languages (especially, French[citation needed] and Bulgarian) the use of full stop as a multiplication symbol, such as a.b, is common.

In programming languages, the standard notation of multiplication operator is U+002A * asterisk due to traditional restriction of all syntax of computer languages to the ASCII character repertoire.

## In computer software

The × symbol is listed in the Latin-1 Supplement character set and is U+00D7 × multiplication sign (HTML &#215; · &times;) in Unicode. It can be invoked in various operating systems as per the table below.

The × symbol is used by the APL programming language to denote the sign function.

There is a similar character ⨯ at U+2A2F, but this is not always considered identical to U+00D7, as U+2A2F is intended to explicitly denote the cross product of two vectors.

 Mac OS X in Character Palette, search for MULTIPLICATION SIGN[6][7] HTML, SGML, XML × and × Microsoft Windows Alt Gr+ Alt+0215 Alt+0D7[8] Unix-like Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U00D7 Compose X X OpenOffice.org times TeX \times Unicode U+00D7

## Unicode

• In Unicode, the basic character is U+00D7 × multiplication sign (HTML &#215; · &times;)

Other variants are encoded:

• U+2297 circled times (HTML &#8855; · &otimes;)
• U+2715 multiplication x (HTML &#10005;)
• U+2716 heavy multiplication x (HTML &#10006;)
• U+2A09 n-ary times operator (HTML &#10761;)
• U+2A2F vector or cross product (HTML &#10799;)
• U+2A30 multiplication sign with dot above (HTML &#10800;)
• U+2A31 multiplication sign with underbar (HTML &#10801;)
• U+2A34 multiplication sign in left half circle (HTML &#10804;)
• U+2A35 multiplication sign in right half circle (HTML &#10805;)
• U+2A36 circled multiplication sign with circumflex accent (HTML &#10806;)
• U+2A37 multiplication sign in double circle (HTML &#10807;)
• U+2A3B multiplication sign in triangle (HTML &#10811;)
• U+2AC1 subset with multiplication sign below (HTML &#10945;)
• U+2AC2 superset with multiplication sign below (HTML &#10946;)