What is the meaning of the "§" symbol (on the upper left corner of the mac keyboard)?

Question

The title says it all, but I'll repeat it here:

What is the meaning of the "§" symbol (on the upper left corner of the mac keyboard) as highlighted in the image here?

Apparently, this is not printed on mac keyboards sold in the US, though it is on models sold in Europe (or Israel, in my case).

@Lizzan , shall put this as the answer or would you like to? — David Resnick, Mar 16 '15 at 14:57
Go for it, I don't have the time to write a full answer right now. :) — Lizzan, Mar 16 '15 at 14:58
On the standard US keyboard, this character is at Option - 6 — Tom Gewecke, Mar 18 '15 at 15:03
@rolin It's similar to, but not the same as the simoleon symbol. Notably, the simoleon's graphic design has a normal circle at the center, not a pair of conjoined curves. — Slipp D. Thompson, Jan 13 '16 at 07:39
does anyone know how to change this key to write "back quote" (`) programmatically? — Tomer Even, Jul 25 '17 at 08:33
Notably, this and any other unknown symbol can be searched on DuckDuckGo. This immediately revealed the name of the symbol: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%C2%A7&ia=web — Alan H., Nov 09 '17 at 05:44
for me ~ and ' symbol are present, when typing § and ± are showing how to correct it? — kiran, Jun 27 '19 at 20:30
@kiran Switch the layout on your computer to match the one on your keyboard. You might have a US English keyboard, so you could try that. — Liggliluff, Aug 07 '19 at 08:28
@Liggliluff I switch to US English keyboard! still same result! — kiran, Aug 07 '19 at 09:21

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

31

"§" is the section sign, as answered by @Lizzan.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The section sign (§) 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" and "sectional symbol".
It is also sometimes used to link to a footnote where the asterisk (*) is already in use on a given page.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Mar 16 '15 at 15:04

David Resnick

1,161

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 11 '15 at 09:37

5

It's a Section sign, and is used in Minecraft for color formatting codes.

edited Aug 11 '15 at 09:37

grg

201,078

answered Aug 11 '15 at 00:47

ThePoseionNinja

51

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 09 '17 at 05:46

2

As noted, it is the “section sign” symbol. I had no idea it was on some keyboards! On my American Apple keyboard, I can type it as ⌥6 (Option-6).

answered Nov 09 '17 at 05:46

Alan H.

665

What is the meaning of the "§" symbol (on the upper left corner of the mac keyboard)?

3 Answers3

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