Wingdings Symbols and Meanings: What the Symbols Actually Represent
Wingdings contains pictorial glyphs such as pointing hands, folders, telephones, faces, weather marks, religious symbols, zodiac signs, geometric shapes, and decorative ornaments.
On this page, “meaning” refers to what a symbol visually represents and how that pictogram is commonly used. The associated keyboard key is included where it helps identify the glyph. For a full key-by-key lookup, use the Wingdings Alphabet & Character Map.
This guide covers the original Wingdings font. Wingdings 2, Wingdings 3, and Webdings use separate symbol collections and mappings; Wingdings 1 vs Wingdings 2 vs Wingdings 3 vs Webdings compares them side by side.
Hand and Gesture Symbols
Hands are among the most recognizable Wingdings glyphs. They work well as visual instructions because pointing, approval, rejection, and attention can be communicated quickly without adding a full sentence.
| Key | Symbol | What It Represents | Common Visual Use |
|---|---|---|---|
A | ✌ | Victory hand | Victory, peace, or a positive gesture |
B | 🖏 | Turned OK hand sign | OK, approval, or agreement |
C | 👍 | Thumbs up | Approval, confirmation, or a positive response |
D | 👎 | Thumbs down | Disapproval, rejection, or a negative response |
E | ☜ | Left-pointing hand | Direct attention to the left |
F | ☞ | Right-pointing hand | Direct attention to the right |
G | ☝ | Up-pointing hand | Point upward or emphasize something above |
H | 🖗 | Down-pointing hand | Direct attention downward |
I | 🖐 | Raised open hand | Stop, attention, greeting, or raised-hand indication |
? | ✍ | Writing hand | Writing, signing, editing, or annotation |
@ | 🖎 | Left writing hand | Writing or marking from the opposite orientation |
Pointing hands have a much older typographic history than Wingdings itself. Printers used hand-shaped marks, often called manicules, to draw attention to important passages. Wingdings brought that familiar visual device into digital documents.
Gesture meanings can vary by culture, so their safest use in documents is usually functional: pointing, approval, rejection, writing, or calling attention to a location.
Writing, Mail, Office and Computer Symbols
A large part of Wingdings reflects the desktop-computing environment of the early 1990s. The font includes writing tools, telephones, envelopes, folders, documents, storage media, and input devices that could be placed directly inside documents and interfaces.
| Key or Range | Symbol | Visual Meaning | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|---|
! | 🖉 | Pencil | Writing, editing, notes |
" / # | ✂ / ✁ | Scissors | Cutting, trimming, cut-line markers |
$ | 👓 | Eyeglasses | Reading, viewing, inspection |
% | 🕭 | Ringing bell | Alert, notification, attention |
& | 🕮 | Book | Reading, reference material, documentation |
' | 🕯 | Candle | Light, ceremony, remembrance, decoration |
( / ) | 🕿 / ✆ | Telephone symbols | Phone, calling, contact information |
* / + | 🖂 / 🖃 | Envelope and stamped envelope | Mail, messages, correspondence |
, - . / | 📪 📫 📬 📭 | Mailbox states | Mail status, sending, receiving, or delivery |
0 / 1 | 🗀 / 🗁 | Folder and open folder | Files, directories, stored content |
2 3 4 | 🗎 🗏 🗐 | Document, page, and pages | Documents and multi-page content |
5 | 🗄 | File cabinet | Filing, records, storage, archive |
6 | ⏳ | Hourglass with flowing sand | Waiting, time passing, progress |
7 8 9 | 🖮 🖰 🖲 | Keyboard, mouse, trackball | Computer input devices |
: | 🖳 | Personal computer | Computer or workstation |
; | 🖴 | Hard disk | Data storage |
< / = | 🖫 / 🖬 | Floppy disks | Saving and stored data |
> | ✇ | Tape drive | Data storage or backup |
Some of these pictograms now function almost like snapshots of early personal computing. Floppy disks, trackballs, tape drives, and file cabinets reflect the environment in which the font was developed. Several also survived as interface metaphors long after the physical devices became less common.
Faces, Warnings, Flags and Weather Symbols
The uppercase middle of the Wingdings map moves from computer-related imagery into expression, warnings, travel, flags, and weather.
| Key | Symbol | What It Depicts | Common Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
J | ☺ | Smiling face | Happiness, friendliness, positive mood |
K | 😐 | Neutral face | Neutrality, indifference, flat reaction |
L | ☹ | Frowning face | Sadness, disappointment, negative mood |
M | 💣 | Bomb | Explosion, danger, destructive event |
N | 🕱 | Skull and crossbones | Danger, death, poison, severe warning |
O | 🏳 | White flag | Surrender, truce, neutral flag, marker |
P | 🏱 | White pennant | Marker, event indicator, flag point |
Q | ✈ | Airplane | Aviation, airport, travel |
R | ☼ | Sun with rays | Sunshine, daylight, fair weather |
S | 🌢 | Black droplet | Water, liquid, moisture, precipitation |
T | ❄ | Snowflake | Snow, cold, winter, freezing conditions |
The three face symbols form a particularly clear sequence: positive, neutral, and negative expression. The nearby bomb and skull glyphs communicate warning or danger far more strongly, while the airplane and weather marks work naturally in travel or environmental contexts.
Religious and Philosophical Symbols
Wingdings includes several symbols whose cultural histories extend far beyond typography. Their identities were already established before their inclusion in the font.
| Key | Symbol | Identity | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
U | 🕆 | White Latin cross | A form of the Christian cross |
V | ✞ | Shadowed white Latin cross | A decorative Christian cross form |
W | 🕈 | Celtic cross | Cross form associated with Celtic Christian tradition and heritage |
X | ✠ | Maltese cross | An eight-pointed cross used historically in heraldic and organizational contexts |
Y | ✡ | Star of David | Widely recognized as a symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism |
Z | ☪ | Star and crescent | A historic emblem now widely associated with Islamic contexts and a number of Muslim-majority states |
[ | ☯ | Yin-yang | Complementary forces in Chinese philosophical traditions |
\ | 🕉 | Om | A sacred syllable and symbol used in Hinduism and other Indian religious traditions |
] | ☸ | Wheel of Dharma | A major Buddhist symbol associated with the Dharma and the Buddha’s teachings |
These glyphs are best identified by their established names rather than assigned a new Wingdings-specific interpretation. Their inclusion reflects the font’s broad visual repertoire.
Wingdings Zodiac Symbols
The twelve zodiac signs form one continuous sequence in the original Wingdings mapping. The first three occupy punctuation keys, followed by nine lowercase letters.
| Key | Symbol | Zodiac Sign |
|---|---|---|
^ | ♈ | Aries |
_ | ♉ | Taurus |
` | ♊ | Gemini |
a | ♋ | Cancer |
b | ♌ | Leo |
c | ♍ | Virgo |
d | ♎ | Libra |
e | ♏ | Scorpius |
f | ♐ | Sagittarius |
g | ♑ | Capricorn |
h | ♒ | Aquarius |
i | ♓ | Pisces |
For identification purposes, this sequence is unusually useful. A run of neighboring zodiac symbols gives a strong clue that the source uses the original Wingdings mapping.
Geometric Shapes and Decorative Ornaments
The lower character positions contain circles, squares, lozenges, diamonds, boxed marks, rosettes, and ornamental punctuation. These shapes work well as bullets, separators, indicators, and decorative elements because they remain easy to recognize at small sizes.
| Key or Range | Symbol | Visual Identity | Useful Role |
|---|---|---|---|
j | 🙰 | Script ligature et ornament | Typographic flourish |
k | 🙵 | Swash ampersand ornament | Decorative typography |
l | ⚫ | Medium black circle | Bullet, marker, status indicator |
m | 🔾 | Lower-right shadowed white circle | Decorative marker or bullet |
n–r | ◾ 🞏 🞐 ❑ ❒ | Filled, outlined, and shadowed squares | Bullets, markers, boxed indicators |
s–w | 🞟 ⧫ ◆ ❖ 🞙 | Lozenges and diamonds | Bullets, emphasis, separators, decorative markers |
x | ⌧ | X in a rectangle box | Cancellation, selection state, error or close-style marker |
y | ⮹ | Up arrowhead in a rectangle box | Direction or navigation marker |
z | ⌘ | Place of interest sign | Location or point-of-interest marker |
{ / | | 🏵 / 🏶 | Rosette and black rosette | Decoration, bullets, ornamental separators |
} / ~ | 🙶 / 🙷 | Quotation-mark ornaments | Decorative quotation marks and typographic flourishes |
The ⌘ shape at lowercase z is officially named the Place of Interest Sign in Unicode. The same shape is also familiar to modern computer users because Apple uses it for the Command key, which can make this particular glyph easier to recognize.
Using Symbol Meanings in Real Documents
Wingdings works best when a symbol’s visual identity fits the information around it. A pointing hand can direct attention to an instruction, scissors can mark a cut line, a folder can identify stored files, a snowflake can indicate cold conditions, and a geometric shape can serve as a neutral bullet.
That flexibility is one reason the collection spans both literal objects and abstract marks. Some glyphs communicate a specific idea immediately; others provide visual structure without adding much semantic weight.
If you are trying to recover text from a longer sequence of Wingdings symbols, use How to Read Wingdings. The Wingdings Translator can also process supported symbol strings directly.
