Special Characters and Symbols in Writing Quiz

Answer: Paragraph

Here is a pilcrow: ¶. Other interesting symbols in printed materials include the section sign §, the asterism ⁂, the reference mark ※, and the dagger and double dagger. My browser won't display the daggers, but you can imagine the single dagger as being similar to a sans serif lowercase t, and a double dagger as the same symbol with an additional horizontal stroke.

Answer: Delta

In a shocking act of honesty and intimacy among strangers, I'm going to share my calculus report card with you: first semester: A-. Second semester: A. Third semester: F. Since gradients are covered in third semester calculus, I can't really explain them. But the nabla, an inverted delta named after the harp that the symbol resembles, is still pretty cool: ∇.

Bonus calculus trivia: the ∂ symbol deals with partial differentials, a concept related to gradients.

Answer: Czech

The caron takes its "little v" form with some letters like č and ř, but looks like an apostrophe with other letters, as in ľ and ť. Another fascinating but less known diacritic is the ogonek, a little tail or "reverse cedilla" under a letter. Examples: ǫ and Ų.

Answer: Play the note with a downbow motion

⊓ is as close as I could come to approximating the downbow symbol without music font support. The opposite of a downbow, the upbow symbol looks a little like a sans serif capital V.

Answer: A modified lowercase e

Are you a label reader like me? I wondered for a long time what was meant by, for example, "℮ 200 mL/6.7 FL OZ." Regulations and standards governing fair product packaging and labeling can be quite complex, as I found in my research.

Answer: Aquarius, the water bearer

Yes, the two squiggly lines look like waves. Aquarius just happens to be my sign. Cancer, Virgo, and Leo represent various members of my family - you know who you are!

Answer: Double greater-than and less-than signs << like this >>

Be glad you stuck around for the interesting information, since I included an example of «real guillemets» in action here.

Answer: Brazil

Writers/printers could use the ₢ symbol, as well as Cr, NCr, Cr$, or NCr$, depending on which "version" of the Cruzeiro was in use at the time.

Answer: Hole diameter

Some authorities make clear distinctions among the four similar-appearing entities of the mathematical empty set ∅, the capital and lowercase Scandinavian letters Ø and ø, and the diameter symbol. My computer won't display the diameter sign, but it is similar to the preceding characters.

Answer: A capital B or the Greek letter beta

Here are a few random examples from my German-English dictionary: begrüßen (greet), stoß (push), Fußgänger (pedestrian).

Answer: ether

In phonetics, theta (θ) represents the "th" sound in English words like "thin" and "faith." The voiced "th" sound in words like "either" and "the" is transcribed with the letter eth, which looks like this: ð. In English, most medial occurrences of the -th- letter combination preceding an -er final syllable are voiced, probably "shaded" by the final syllable: bother, either, rather, etc.

The word ether is a nice exception.

Answer: Where to skip back to in the music

The abbreviation D.S. stands for dal segno, and tells the player (or singer) to skip back to the sign.

Some musicians use the slang term "road map" for sheet music that requires complicated skipping and repeating. Here's a breakdown of some more road map symbols and directions: A repeat sign is two dots in the staff followed by a measure line and a thick measure line. Repeats may go to the beginning of the piece, or just to an earlier place in the piece. They may be accompanied by "endings" marked by brackets and numbers. D.C. means da capo, which means that the player should go back to the beginning (head) of the piece. A coda sign (it look likes a crosshairs - an O centered on a large +) marks the ending section (tail) of the piece - you may be directed to stop playing at some point and skip to the coda. The word fine (pronounced FEE-nay) or the fermata (bird's eye) symbol tells the player where to stop playing. It sounds complicated, but seeing these symbols and directions used in a score is usually more intuitive than just reading about them.

Answer: Japan

Yes, ¥ stands for Yen. Many currency symbols are common letters that have been modified with extra lines or strokes. Consider, for example, the Euro , the U.S. Dollar $ and cent ¢, and the Korean Won ₩. Other interesting examples from the "money area" of the Unicode character chart are the New Sheqel ₪ and the Rupee ₨.

Answer: Perpendicular

The terms orthogonal and perpendicular both refer to right angles.

The Windows character map has an "up tack" character that approximates the perpendicular sign: ⊥. For the other answer choices: the parallel sign looks like this: ∥, but there is no single way to represent an angle or a radius. Usually, though, theta θ or phi φ represent angle variables, and the ∠ symbol can be shorthand for the word "angle." A lowercase italic r often stands for a radius variable.

Answer: The apostrophe '

Apostrophes and closing single quotation marks are interchangeable, as in, 'Here's an example.' For time measurement, 4′33″ would be read as four minutes, thirty-three seconds. People's heights may be given in this form as well; I am 5′7″, that is, five feet, seven inches tall. Musicians may use primes to refer to a pitch's distance from middle C. For example, a′ is the first A above middle C, and a″ is the A above that. Mathematicians sometimes use primes to notate derivatives.

Note that the double prime ″ should not be confused with a double quotation mark ". Printers may call pairs of opening and closing quotes sixes and nines, due to their resemblance to tiny double superscript 6s and 9s.