One marks a facility; the other states that water is fit to drink.
Look for the person. A figure bending to an arc of water marks a fountain — a place to drink. A tap or glass without a figure states that the water is potable, which is a claim about the water rather than a direction to a facility. A tap can be marked potable without there being anywhere to drink from it.
One marks a facility, the other states that water is potable.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Drinking fountain symbol | Drinking water symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | people and objects | objects, lines and dots |
| Drinking fountain symbol | Drinking water symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| What it says | Here is somewhere to drink | This water is safe to drink |
| Shows a person? | Yes | No |
| Marks a place? | Yes | Not necessarily |
| Its negation | Not usually drawn | Struck through: not drinking water |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Drinking water symbol — One marks a facility, the other states that water is potable. | Commonly confused with Drinking fountain symbol — One states that water is potable; the other marks a facility. They appear in the same buildings. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a pictogram depicts and whether a standard covers it; where a standard is named it is reported by this source rather than read, so no meaning is typed `official` on that basis alone.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the symbol depicts, its shape-and-colour category, and any ISO reference number it reports. The standards themselves are paywalled and were not consulted, so nothing here is treated as an official definition.
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.
As punctuation the asterisk points at a footnote or marks a required field. In a filename pattern typed at a shell it matches any run of characters, including none — and the shell expands it against real filenames before the command runs, so the command never sees the pattern at all. That expansion is the part people are surprised by.
Check where the dot sits. A dot immediately to the right of the notehead adds half the note's value again — a dotted half note lasts three beats. A dot directly above or below the head means staccato: play it short and detached. One dot, two opposite instructions, and only position distinguishes them.
Look at whether the adult is standing or seated. Baby changing shows an adult leaning over an infant on a table — a facility for changing a nappy. A nursing room shows a seated figure holding an infant — a private space for feeding. They are separate rooms, and signage that conflates them sends people to the wrong one.