Mac keyboard symbols explained: ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ and the rest
The four symbols you see most on a Mac are the modifier keys: ⌘ is Command, ⌥ is Option, ⌃ is Control and ⇧ is Shift. Menus always list them in the same order, Control, Option, Shift, Command, so ⇧⌘5 means hold Shift and Command, then press 5. The other symbols stand for keys such as Escape (⎋), Delete (⌫), Return (↩) and Tab (⇥), and the table below has all of them.
Most of the confusion comes from the keyboard, not the menus. Depending on the model and the country it was made for, a key may carry a word, a symbol or both, while menus only ever show the symbol. Learn about twenty glyphs and every shortcut in every menu reads like plain text.
The modifier keys
Modifiers are the keys you hold while you press another key. On their own, most of them do nothing.
- Command (⌘). The main shortcut key on a Mac. It does most of what Ctrl does on Windows: Command-C copies, Command-V pastes, Command-Q quits. When a shortcut has only one modifier, it is usually this one.
- Option (⌥). Gives a shortcut a second meaning, or types a different character. Many older Apple keyboards also print “alt” on it, and on a keyboard made for Windows the Alt key does its job.
- Control (⌃). Used by system shortcuts such as Control-Up Arrow for Mission Control, and all over the command line in Terminal. Control-click is the same as a right-click.
- Shift (⇧). Capital letters, and a second version of many shortcuts: Command-Z undoes, Command-Shift-Z redoes in most apps.
- Caps Lock (⇪). Rarely part of a shortcut, but System Settings uses the symbol when you remap the key.
- fn, or Globe (🌐). On recent Mac laptops and compact Apple keyboards, the bottom-left key shows both. Held, it turns the top row into F1 to F12 and the arrow keys into Page Up, Page Down, Home and End. It has a post of its own: What the fn and Globe key does on a Mac.
Every symbol in one table
| Symbol | Key | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘ | Command | Almost every shortcut |
| ⌥ | Option | Alternate commands and characters |
| ⌃ | Control | System and Terminal shortcuts |
| ⇧ | Shift | Second versions of shortcuts |
| ⇪ | Caps Lock | Modifier key settings |
| fn or 🌐 | Function or Globe | Function keys and Globe shortcuts |
| ⎋ | Escape | ⌥⌘⎋ opens Force Quit |
| ⇥ | Tab | ⌘⇥ switches apps |
| ⇤ | Tab backward | The same as ⇧⇥ |
| ↩ | Return | Default buttons, new lines |
| ⌫ | Delete | ⌘⌫ moves a file to the Trash in Finder |
| ⌦ | Forward Delete | Deletes to the right of the cursor |
| ↑ ↓ ← → | Arrow keys | ⌘↑ opens the enclosing folder in Finder |
| ⇞ | Page Up | fn ↑ on a Mac laptop |
| ⇟ | Page Down | fn ↓ on a Mac laptop |
| ↖ | Home | fn ← on a Mac laptop |
| ↘ | End | fn → on a Mac laptop |
Apple’s own shortcut list draws Return as ⏎, and draws the arrows as small triangles, the way recent Apple keyboards print the arrow keys. They are the same keys.
Forward Delete and the last four rows are keys a MacBook does not have. You get them by holding fn with an arrow key or with Delete, and the keys a MacBook leaves out goes through each one.
How to read a shortcut
A few rules cover nearly every shortcut you will see.
- Modifiers come first, in a fixed order. Menus print them as ⌃⌥⇧⌘, always in that order, and the key you press last comes at the end. ⌃⌥⌘K is Control, Option and Command, then K.
- Hold, then press. Hold every modifier, press the last key once, and let go of everything.
- A capital letter does not mean Shift. Menus show letters as capitals, but ⌘C is Command and a lowercase c. When Shift is part of the shortcut, ⇧ is there: ⇧⌘N makes a new folder in Finder.
- The order of the words does not matter. Written out, ⇧⌘5 might appear as Shift-Command-5 or Command-Shift-5. Both mean the same three keys.
- A caret means Control on the command line. Terminal and many command-line guides write Control as ^, so ^C is Control-C. Press Control-C in Terminal to stop a command and you will see ^C appear.
Where the symbols show up, and how to see them as you press
Menus are the main place. Every menu item with a shortcut lists it on the right, and reading the menus of the app you use most is the quickest way to get used to the glyphs. The system shortcuts, for screenshots, Spotlight, Mission Control and the rest, are in System Settings > Keyboard: click Keyboard Shortcuts… and pick a category on the left.
To see the symbols as you press the keys, macOS has one option built in. Turn on Sticky Keys in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, with “Display pressed keys on screen” on in its options, and the symbols for Command, Shift, Option and Control appear on screen when you press those keys. Sticky Keys also changes how the keys behave, since each modifier stays down until you press the next key, so it suits practice better than everyday work.
Typebar puts the same idea on screen in a form made for learning and for recordings. Every key you press lights up on an on-screen keyboard, and a pill shows what you pressed as keycaps with the shortcut’s name from the app’s own menus, such as “⇧⌘4 Screenshot Selection”. You see the symbol, the key it stands for, and what it did, all at once.
Hold a modifier for a moment and the board relabels the keys with what they do in the app in front, which turns ⌘, ⌥, ⌃ and ⇧ from symbols you decode into keys you can look at. See every keyboard shortcut for the app you are using covers that, and the built-in ways to do it. Typebar is $9 once, with a free 24-hour trial.
Windows keyboards and other mismatches
On a keyboard made for Windows, Alt works as Option and the Windows key works as Command. The catch is position. On a Mac keyboard, Command sits next to the Space bar; on a Windows keyboard, Alt does. If your hands keep reaching for the wrong key, swap them:
- Open System Settings and click Keyboard.
- Click Keyboard Shortcuts…, then choose Modifier Keys on the left.
- Pick the Windows keyboard from the menu at the top.
- Set the Option key to Command and the Command key to Option, then click Done.
The keycaps still say Alt and Windows, but they now sit where your Mac habits expect.
Typing the symbols yourself
If you write instructions for other people, you will want the symbols in your own text. Copy them from this page, or set up a text replacement so they type themselves: in System Settings > Keyboard, click Text Replacements…, then add an entry such as “cmd” with ⌘ as its replacement. Do the same for ⌥, ⌃ and ⇧.
The Option key types a whole set of other symbols, such as © and °, with no setup at all. Type special characters on a Mac with the Option key lists them.
Questions
What is the ⌘ symbol called?
It is the Command key’s symbol. In Unicode it is the “place of interest sign”, and people also call it the cloverleaf or looped square.
Which key is ⌥?
Option. On Apple keyboards it sits between Control and Command, and it is labeled option, with alt as well on many older models. On a Windows keyboard, use Alt.
Why does a menu show a symbol that is not on my keyboard?
Usually it is ⇞, ⇟, ↖, ↘ or ⌦, which full-size keyboards have and MacBooks leave out. Hold fn and press an arrow key or Delete to get them.
What does ^ mean in a shortcut?
Control. You will mostly see it in Terminal and command-line guides, where ^C means Control-C.