We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
Marks that exist to prevent harm: hazard pictograms, prohibition and mandatory signs, warning triangles and the classifications behind them.
Here when a governing body defines the mark and its use is regulated. A symbol that merely looks alarming is not a safety symbol, and the perceptual collections are where that reading belongs.
Overwhelmingly officially standardised. These are the catalogue's most firmly grounded records: nearly every one is defined in GHS, ISO 7010, a transport regulation or a national equivalent, and the record cites it.
All 283symbols in this domain, A–Z.
Blue and white chequers, the N flag.
A rounded vessel storing energy under pressure.
White and blue swallow-tail: a diver is down, keep clear at slow speed.
A black and white panel with a lower-case a device.
Four white figures around a point on green, marking where to gather.
Five levels, not evenly spaced.
Red-and-yellow, red, black-and-white chequered — and the one that is not a warning.
One bit, sent a hundred miles.
The two letters Bq, the SI unit symbol for the becquerel.
Two date marks meaning quite different things.
A trefoil of overlapping circles, designed to be instantly recognisable as a warning for biological hazards.
A number from one to four rating containment.
Split diagonally, black and white.
Plain black, with a car number.
An orange circle on black.
Plain blue.
The pressure it was built for.
Numbers or radial lines on a head giving tensile strength.
A serpent coiled around a stemmed bowl, marking pharmacy.
A seated figure bent forward with hands on the head, on an aircraft safety card.
Plain red swallow-tail: dangerous cargo.
A buoy with two cone topmarks, saying which side of a danger holds safe water.
Black and white squares.
A smaller figure in a lifejacket.
A key, a padlock or a small figure: the controls are frozen.
A roof over figures on a green ground.
A warning about a child's age.
An orange triangle in a blue circle.
An exploding bomb on an orange diamond.
A flame on a red diamond, for flammable gas.
A gas cylinder on a green diamond.
A skull and crossbones on a white diamond.
A flame on a red diamond, for flammable liquid.
A flame on a blue diamond, for water-reactive material.
A flame on a red-and-white striped diamond.
A flame on a half-white, half-red diamond.
A flame on a half-red, half-yellow diamond.
A flame over a circle on a yellow diamond.
A biohazard symbol on a white diamond.
A skull and crossbones on a white diamond.
A trefoil on a diamond, with a category bar.
Liquids burning a hand and a surface, on a split diamond.
Vertical stripes above a plain lower half.
A small square inside a larger square — IEC 60417-5172, marking equipment protected by double or reinforced insulation rather than an earth connection.
A triangle labelled heat, fuel and oxygen.
A yellow triangle or notice warning of restricted entry.
Symbols for how to lift it.
A purple label with a cell in division, marking hazardous drugs.
A raft on a crane arm.
A figure falling into water inside a yellow warning triangle.
A heart with a lightning stroke on green, marking an AED.
Yellow for serious but can wait.
Yellow with a broad blue band: keep clear, I am manoeuvring with difficulty.
A lever and a placard beside an aircraft door showing armed and disarmed positions.
The full string of code flags flown for ceremony, spelling nothing.
A number on a logarithmic scale, subscripted by method.
A thermometer in a triangle, for a hot load.
A figure descending a rope ladder over a ship's side.
A hood for getting out through smoke.
A white running figure heading through a door on green, marking the way out.
A figure under a showerhead on a green square.
A figure jumping onto an inflated chute from an aircraft door.
A red mushroom head on a yellow background.
A white handset and arrow on a green square.
A retained placard on an emptied unit.
Dashes warning of a holding point.
A yellow triangle with a hand caught in rollers.
A beacon with radiating waves, marking an emergency position-indicating radio beacon.
A sign for a chair used to take someone down stairs in a fire.
A hatched-border square with a class number.
Black or blue, for those beyond help.
A face with two streams directed at the eyes, on green.
A large X in four quadrants.
A letter D marking combustible metal fires.
A letter F marking cooking oil and fat fires.
A plan in a tube by the gangway.
A labelled flap in a duct.
A white extinguisher on red, marking firefighting equipment.
A helmet, suit and breathing set.
A white cross on green, marking first aid provision.
A warning about how cloth burns.
A bordered notice on a fumigated unit.
A worded warning tied to a defined Beaufort force.
A bell or horn with radiating lines, marking the general emergency alarm.
Blue and white vertical stripes.
A black exclamation mark in a yellow triangle.
An image of a substance corroding a surface and a hand, in a red-bordered diamond — the GHS symbol for corrosive hazard.
A black image of a dead fish and tree in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for aquatic/environmental hazard.
A black exclamation mark in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for lower-level health/physical hazards or irritation.
A black exploding-bomb icon in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for explosive hazard.
A black flame above a black circle in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for oxidizing hazard.
A black flame icon in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for flammable hazard.
A black gas cylinder icon in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for gases under pressure.
A black human silhouette with a starburst on the chest, in a red-bordered diamond — the GHS symbol for serious, longer-term health hazards.
A black skull and crossbones in a red-bordered diamond, the GHS symbol for acute toxicity.
A downward-pointing triangle with a red border, requiring a driver to yield to traffic on the road ahead.
Plain green.
Letters laid out on the ground.
Helmet colours identifying roles on a construction site.
The upper figure group on an orange plate.
A black lightning arrow in a yellow triangle, warning of electrical danger.
A hand above wavy heat lines, warning of burn risk.
A buoy whose two cones say which side holds safe water.
A channel-side buoy whose colour depends on the region.
Red for treat first.
A figure in a full-body suit with a hood, marking immersion suit stowage.
A triangle showing a cable above the road.
A blue cross on white.
A carried infant in a lifejacket.
Colours distinguishing reliever from preventer inhalers.
A square of information on a wall.
A coloured band or tag showing the period in which equipment was last inspected.
A date saying when it was last looked at.
Raised ink a reader can feel on a banknote.
The treaty-adopted flag code every seagoing vessel carries.
One flange that fits every port.
A black and red buoy with two black balls.
Five numbered levels, colour-graded.
A red-bordered panel with a shaking figure.
A black-and-purple banner over a broadcast.
A crossed pair of bars with alternating flashers.
A red button in a yellow housing.
Door position marks on a platform barrier.
Korea's single safety mark.
A child-and-hand or crossed-child mark warning against accessible storage.
A key written as numbers.
Yellow footprints and a bounded waiting box.
A triangle over a sheltering figure.
A roofed figure on a green ground.
A graded mask-and-particle panel.
A number rating how dangerous a laser is to the eye.
A yellow triangle with a black starburst beam.
A red-bordered triangle warning that the road crosses a railway on the level, with or without gates.
Alternating red lamps and an amber preceding them.
A figure wearing a buoyancy collar, marking where life jackets are stowed.
An inflatable raft with a canopy, marking where a liferaft canister is stowed.
A boat on a slipway or in a house, marking a crewed rescue station ashore.
A ring with four bands, marking a throwable buoyancy ring and its line.
A diamond with solid upper and lower triangles.
A rocket trailing a line.
A bordered mark with batteries and a flame.
A table that is a limit.
A tag attached to an isolated energy source, naming who applied it.
An escape route marked at floor level.
A white pictogram on a solid blue circle, requiring an action.
An S certifying electrical safety.
A dead fish and a dead tree in a diamond.
Defined words from good to fog for how far can be seen.
A word meaning grave and imminent danger.
Shoulder colours identifying what is in a cylinder.
Green for walking wounded.
Three symbols saying whether an item may enter the scanner room.
A group of figures under an arrow, marking where to gather before evacuating a ship.
A four-part diamond rating health, fire, reactivity and special hazards.
The top quadrant rating flammability.
The left quadrant rating health hazard.
The right quadrant rating reactivity.
The bottom quadrant carrying a letter code.
A crossed-out cup or spoon, instructing that a patient must not eat or drink.
A red disc with a white horizontal bar across it, prohibiting entry to all vehicles.
A handset in a red circle with a diagonal bar, prohibiting phone use.
A crossed-out flame in a red circle.
A white disc with a red border showing two cars side by side, one of them red, prohibiting overtaking.
A blue disc with a red border and a single red diagonal bar, prohibiting parking.
A camera in a red circle with a diagonal bar, prohibiting photography.
A lit cigarette in a red circle with a diagonal bar.
A swimming figure in a red circle with a diagonal bar.
A decibel figure on a machine.
Pavement that will not take weight.
A divided orange plate carrying two code numbers.
Red and yellow diagonal: man overboard.
A yellow triangle with a suspended load above a figure.
A word declaring a repacked load.
Urgent, but nobody is dying.
A tag that says a permission exists.
A colour that means something local.
A pair of check valves with a relief.
A bottle you can read in the dark.
A small dated sticker on a plug or lead recording an electrical safety check.
Red and white stripes, the AP flag.
A yellow triangle with a gas cylinder outline.
A yellow diamond with a white border, marking a road whose traffic has priority at junctions.
A barrel that survived a test.
A square in a square.
A circle enclosing a three-bar earth glyph — IEC 60417-5019, marking the protective earth (ground) terminal on Class I equipment.
A red flag on the boat.
Japan's electrical safety mark.
A marking for a self-clean cycle that burns residue to ash.
Plain yellow: my vessel is healthy and I request free pratique.
A three-bladed trefoil, conventionally black on a yellow background, warning of ionising radiation hazards.
A lead L or R placed in the beam before exposure.
A hook symbol or removable cover marking a vehicle's rated recovery point.
A flag divided red over yellow, marking the lifeguarded bathing area.
Vertical red and yellow stripes.
A plain red flag flown at a beach, meaning the water is closed to bathing.
A red crescent on a white ground, protected under the Geneva Conventions.
A red cross on a white ground, protected under the Geneva Conventions.
A red square standing on one corner, on a white ground.
Plain red.
A protected place to wait for assisted evacuation.
The control that floods a space.
A small boat for recovering people.
A dashed rectangle with corner marks, showing where a fuselage may be cut open.
An H, or a lit dot: the zone is off and still hot enough to burn.
A recorded clinical decision, not a symbol worn by a patient.
A graduated board or post showing water level.
A symbol or coloured connector marking how a medicine is to be given.
Flashing yellow at the hold.
Two solid and two dashed yellow lines across a taxiway, marking a runway boundary.
A red and white striped buoy with a single red ball.
Letters SC on a board.
A coloured tag at a scaffold access point recording its inspection status.
A stop sign that swings out from a stopped school bus.
Smooth, slight, rough, phenomenal — wave height in words.
A device that paints a radar screen.
Chile's electrical and fuel safety seal.
A mark for the earthquake warning.
A rigid yellow container with a fill line and a lid lock.
Imminent, soon, later — and visibility words with exact ranges.
Blue and white, the S flag.
The two letters Sv, the SI unit symbol for the sievert.
Five stripes: blue, white, red, white, blue.
Blue over red, halved.
A red diamond on white.
Six vertical stripes, yellow and blue.
White at the hoist, red at the fly.
A black circle on yellow.
Blue, white, blue in horizontal bands.
Yellow at the hoist, blue at the fly.
Yellow and black quarters.
A white diagonal cross on blue.
A blue and white chequerboard.
A white rectangle on blue.
A yellow cross on red.
A blue rectangle on white.
Red, white and blue vertical stripes.
Red and white quarters.
A blue cross on white.
Diagonal yellow and red stripes.
Four triangles: black, yellow, blue, red.
A tag that must be legible or the sling is scrap.
A column interrupted on purpose.
Three dots, three dashes, three dots.
A white disc with a red border carrying a number, giving the maximum permitted speed.
A blue six-barred star with a serpent-and-staff at its centre, marking emergency medical services.
A red line of lights across the taxiway.
A red octagon bearing the word STOP, requiring a driver to come to a complete halt.
A black cone hoisted point up or point down at a harbour.
A yellow triangle with a horseshoe magnet and field lines.
Triangular pennants that repeat a flag already flying.
Scale lines whose interval depends on the syringe size.
Blisters underfoot at a hazard.
A bag on a line, marking a throwable rescue line.
Broad arrows and a bounded zone dividing shipping lanes.
A small triangle or letters on the shoulder, pointing at a moulded wear bar.
Four colours sorting casualties by urgency at an incident.
Numbered intensity scales that differ between ocean basins.
A circle with two curved tails, spiralling the way the storm does.
A letter code limiting passage through tunnels.
Four digits in an oval giving the week and year a tyre was manufactured.
A number keyed to a table of maximum loads.
A number and a letter after the size, giving load capacity and maximum speed.
A wall of codes on rubber.
A letter naming a maximum sustained speed.
A four-figure substance number on a plate or placard.
Coloured printed tape laid above a buried cable or pipe as a last warning.
Coloured paint before you dig.
A post above a buried line.
Spray-painted colours on a road surface, each standing for a buried service.
A number from 1 upward, with colour bands and a threshold at 3.
White with a red saltire: I require assistance.
A number from zero to eight rating an eruption's size.
A lance that makes fog.
A blue circle with a white figure wearing ear defenders.
A blue circle with a white figure wearing goggles.
A blue circle with a figure in a marked vest.
A blue circle with a figure in a fall-arrest harness.
Yellow, amber, red — likelihood crossed with impact, not severity alone.
A graded colour scale from yellow to red for expected impact.
Blue, white and red rectangles nested: I require medical assistance.
Plain white.
A hull or crossed-mast mark showing a sunken vessel.
Plain yellow.