The check or check mark (American English), checkmark (Philippine English), tickmark (Indian English) or tick (Australian, New Zealand and British English)[citation needed] is a mark (✓, ✔, etc.) used in many countries, including the English-speaking world, to indicate the concept "yes" (e.g. "yes; this has been verified", "yes; that is the correct answer", "yes; this has been completed", or "yes; this [item or option] applies").
| ✓ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Check mark | |||||||
| U 2713 ✓ CHECK MARK (✓, ✓) | |||||||
| |||||||
This article is missing information about the history of the check mark. (November 2024) |
The x mark is also sometimes used for this purpose (most notably on election ballot papers, e.g. in the United Kingdom), but otherwise usually indicates "no", incorrectness, or failure. One of the earliest usages of a check mark as an indication of completion is on ancient Babylonian tablets "where small indentations were sometimes made with a stylus, usually placed at the left of a worker's name, presumably to indicate whether the listed ration has been issued."[1]
As a verb, to check (off) means to add such a mark. Printed forms, printed documents, and computer software (see checkbox) commonly include squares in which to place check marks.
International differences
editThe check mark is a predominant affirmative symbol of convenience in the English-speaking world because of its instant and simple composition. In other language communities, there may be different conventions.
It is common in Swedish schools for a ✓ to indicate that an answer is incorrect,[2][3][4] while "R", from the Swedish rätt, i.e., "correct", is used to indicate that an answer is correct.
In Finnish, ✓ stands for väärin, i.e., "wrong", due to its similarity to a slanted v.[citation needed] The opposite, "correct", is marked with , a slanted vertical line emphasized with two dots[5] (see also commercial minus sign).
In Japan, the O mark is used instead of the check mark, and the X or ✓ mark are commonly used for wrong.[6]
In the Netherlands (and former Dutch colonies) the flourish of approval (or krul) is used for approving a section or sum.
In German-speaking countries, ✓ is used for “correct” or “done”, but not usually for ticking boxes, which are crossed instead. The opposite of ✓ is ƒ (short for falsch “wrong”).
Unicode
editUnicode provides various check marks, the one called CHECK MARK is in the U 27xx Dingbats block:
| Symbol | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ⍻ | U 237B | NOT CHECK MARK |
| ☐ | U 2610 | BALLOT BOX |
| ☑ | U 2611 | BALLOT BOX WITH CHECK |
| ✅ | U 2705 | WHITE HEAVY CHECK MARK |
| ✓ | U 2713 | CHECK MARK |
| ✔ | U 2714 | HEAVY CHECK MARK |
| 𐄂 | U 10102 | AEGEAN CHECK MARK |
| 𝤿 | U 1D93F | SIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK SMALL |
| 𝥀 | U 1D940 | SIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK MEDIUM |
| 𝥁 | U 1D941 | SIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK LARGE |
| 🗸 | U 1F5F8 | LIGHT CHECK MARK |
| 🗹 | U 1F5F9 | BALLOT BOX WITH BOLD CHECK |
| 🮱 | U 1FBB1 | INVERSE CHECK MARK |
Keyboard entry
editThe heavy check mark ✔ is available in the fonts Marlett and Webdings. On the QWERTY keyboard, it can be produced by striking lower-case a with one of these fonts in effect.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Tenney, Jonathan S. (2011-07-12). Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society. Brill. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004206892.i-268. ISBN 978-90-04-20704-2.
- ^ "bock". Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien (in Swedish). Swedish Academy.
- ^ "bock". Svenska Akademiens ordlista (in Swedish). Swedish Academy.
- ^ "bock". Svenska Akademiens ordbok (in Swedish). Vol. 5. Swedish Academy. 1917.
- ^ Version 3.2 of the Unicode Standard, General Punctuation 2002-03-27
- ^ "Internationalization". W3.org. W3C. Archived from the original on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
External links
edit
- Unicode Character U 2713 Check Mark at Compart.com