Degree Symbol (°): Copy It and Stop Confusing It With º
Copy the degree sign and the two ordinal indicators, and learn the spacing rule that almost everyone gets wrong.
Three different characters · click to copy
They look alike on screen, but software tells them apart. Picking the wrong one is the commonest mistake with the degree symbol.
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What is the degree symbol?
The degree symbol (°) is a small raised circle placed after a figure to indicate temperature or the size of an angle. It occupies Unicode code point U+00B0.
The hard part is not typing it but not confusing it. Three very similar characters coexist: the degree (°), the masculine ordinal indicator (º) and the feminine one (ª). All three are small raised circles, and many typefaces draw them almost identically, yet they serve different purposes and carry different code points.
The confusion has real consequences. A spreadsheet will not recognise a temperature typed with an ordinal, a search engine treats «1° floor» and «1.º piso» as different strings, and a spell checker flags the error even when nothing looks wrong to the eye.
How to type the degree sign on every system
Watch out on Spanish keyboards: the key that looks like the degree actually gives the ordinal.
Windows
For the degree sign. The ordinal º is Alt + 0186.
Requires the numeric keypad with Num Lock on.
macOS
The standard combination for the degree sign.
The ordinal º is Option + 0.
Linux
With the Compose key, on any layout.
Or AltGr + Shift + 0 on international layouts.
Spanish keyboard
The ordinal º has a dedicated key, top left.
Careful: that key gives the ordinal, not the degree.
Android & iOS
The degree sign sits among the zero variants.
On the symbol keyboard, not the letter one.
Word & HTML
Degree shortcut inside Microsoft Word.
In HTML: ° or °. In CSS: \00B0.
The Windows codes follow the same logic as every other character: Alt + 0176 is the degree because 176 is its Unicode number, and 186 and 170 correspond to the masculine and feminine ordinals. Remember the code point and you already know the shortcut.
27°C or 27 °C? The spacing rule
Symbols are written after the figure and separated from it by a space, except raised symbols, which close up: 12°, 35′. Ortografía de la lengua española · Real Academia Española
The result is a rule almost nobody applies correctly, because it depends on whether the scale is mentioned. Without a scale, the degree closes up to the number. With a scale, it separates from the figure and attaches to the letter.
| ✓ 27° | No scale given: closed up to the figure |
| ✓ 27 °C | Scale given: space before, closed up to the C |
| ✗ 27°C | Missing the space before the symbol |
| ✗ 27 ° C | Extra space between ° and C |
| ✗ 20 oC | That is a letter o, not the degree sign |
The apparent contradiction has a reason: «°C» counts as a single symbol, the degree Celsius, and complete symbols separate from the figure like any other unit — the same way you write 33 dB or 20 %. When the degree stands alone it behaves as a raised sign and closes up. The SI brochure gives the same guidance, so this is not a quirk of Spanish typography.
Substituting a lowercase o for the circle is more common than it sounds, particularly when copying from older documents. It slips past the eye, but any automated processing sees it for what it is: a letter in the middle of a figure.
There is one scale that breaks the pattern entirely: the kelvin takes no degree sign at all. Absolute temperature is written 300 K, never 300 °K, because the kelvin is an absolute unit rather than a scale of degrees. Celsius and Fahrenheit keep the symbol — 20 °C, 68 °F — but kelvin drops it.
The same applies to differences in temperature. A rise of five Celsius degrees is written 5 °C, and the unit stays attached to the letter exactly as it does for an absolute reading. It is one of the few places where scientific and everyday writing agree completely on the typography.
The ordinals: º and ª
Ordinal indicators belong to the Iberian languages, and they are the reason a Spanish keyboard dedicates a whole key to º. They abbreviate ordinal numbers: 1.º for «primero», 2.ª for «segunda».
English has no equivalent — it writes 1st, 2nd, 3rd — which is exactly why English speakers reach for the degree sign when writing Spanish addresses or floor numbers. It is the wrong character, and Spanish-language software will treat it as such.
A practical hint for telling them apart on screen: in most typefaces the masculine ordinal º is slightly smaller than the degree °, and some fonts underline it. The only reliable check, though, is which key or code produced it.
Unicode holds two further look-alikes that creep in by mistake: the ring above ˚ (U+02DA), which properly belongs to letters such as the Nordic å, and the superscript zero ⁰ (U+2070), intended for mathematical notation. Neither is suitable for temperatures, however identical they appear.
Where else the degree appears
Beyond weather and geometry, the same character appears in geographic coordinates, alongside arc minutes and seconds: 40° 25′ 08″ N. It also shows up in the alcoholic strength of drinks, where the symbol and the percentage abbreviation coexist depending on the country.
Common mistakes with the degree sign
The degree sign is not an ordinal marker. English uses st/nd/rd/th; Spanish uses the º and ª indicators, which are different characters entirely.
When the scale is stated, the space goes before the symbol and the symbol stays glued to the scale letter. This follows the SI convention as well as the RAE.
Replacing the small circle with a letter o or a zero is wrong, even though it usually passes unnoticed on screen.
If you need superscripts or subscripts for scientific notation, our small text generator produces them in Unicode, and clean text normalises odd characters in a pasted document.
Frequently asked questions
How do I type the degree symbol?
What is the difference between ° and º?
Is it 25°C or 25 °C?
Do angles take a space too?
Can I use the º key on a Spanish keyboard for temperatures?
What is the Unicode code point for the degree symbol?
Which other characters get confused with it?
Does the degree symbol count as a character on social media?
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