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The same bare chevron names a keyboard modifier and anchors a pattern — and shell documentation puts them side by side.
Both are two strokes meeting at a point above. In a keyboard shortcut the chevron is the control key, which is why documentation writes control-C as caret-C. At the front of a regular expression the same mark anchors the pattern to the start of a line, and inside a bracket expression it negates the set instead.
Both are drawn as a bare upward chevron; one names a keyboard modifier, the other anchors a pattern to the start of a line.
| Control key symbol | Regular expression caret anchor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it names | The control key | The start of a line |
| Where | Keyboard shortcuts and terminal output | The front of a pattern |
| Matches a character | — | No, it matches a position |
| Second job | None | Negates a bracket expression when it comes first inside one |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Regular expression caret anchor — Both are drawn as a bare upward chevron; one names a keyboard modifier, the other anchors a pattern to the start of a line. | Commonly confused with Control key symbol — Both are drawn as a bare upward chevron; one anchors a pattern, the other names a keyboard modifier. |
Unicode Code Chart: Miscellaneous Technical (U+2300–U+23FF)
The Unicode Consortium · retrieved 2026-07-31
Authoritative for the character's code point, name and block only. Unicode assigns identity; it does not define what a symbol means in use.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity and origin summary, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity, origin and current use, not for contested detail or exact dates.
POSIX.1-2024, Regular Expressions
The Open Group / IEEE · retrieved 2026-08-01
Cited for the metacharacters of basic and extended regular expressions. Later dialects (PCRE, ECMAScript) extend this and diverge from it; where a record describes a construct POSIX does not define, it says so and is typed as documented practice.
The shift key is an outlined arrow with a stem and a broad head. The control key is a bare chevron with no stem at all — two strokes meeting at a point. Both point upward and both are modifiers, which is the whole of the resemblance; they do entirely different things and appear in different positions in printed shortcuts.
Both are drawn as one continuous decorative stroke with a closed loop and a tail that crosses back over itself, which is why a description of the shape alone reaches both. The clef is far taller, spans a stave, and its spiral encircles one specific line — that encircled line is the note G, and it is the only reason the shape is drawn where it is.
The ampersand is a ligature of the Latin word et, still visible in some italic forms where the e and the t can be picked out. The Tironian et is a separate mark descending from a Roman shorthand, shaped like a small seven, and it is in daily public use in Ireland as the written form of 'agus'. A reader who knows only the ampersand takes the other for a numeral, which on a bilingual road sign produces a confidently wrong place name.
A building's assembly point is a safe place to stand once you are outside. A ship's muster station is a staffed step in a procedure: you are counted against a roll, briefed, and if necessary allocated to a survival craft, which is why it has a letter or a number and appears on your cabin door card. Both are green, both show grouped figures, and both are called an assembly point in ordinary speech — and treating a muster station as somewhere merely to wait is the misunderstanding drills exist to correct.