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Two upward marks on the same keyboard, distinguished by whether the arrow has a body.
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 upward-pointing modifier marks; the shift key's is an outlined arrow with a stem, the control key's a bare chevron.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Shift key symbol | Control key symbol |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | arrows | abstract |
| Shift key symbol | Control key symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Outlined arrow with a stem | Bare chevron, no stem |
| Unicode | U+21E7 | U+2303 |
| Effect | Upper case, or the alternate character | Forms a control shortcut |
| Latches | No | No |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Control key symbol — Both are upward-pointing modifier marks; the shift key's is an outlined arrow with a stem, the control key's a bare chevron. | Commonly confused with Shift key symbol — Both are upward-pointing marks used as modifiers; the shift key's is a filled outlined arrow with a stem, the control key's a bare chevron. |
Unicode Code Chart: Arrows (U+2190–U+21FF)
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.
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.
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.
Look underneath the arrow. No bar is shift, which applies only while you hold it. A bar is caps lock, which latches until you press it again. That single stroke is the difference between a momentary modifier and a latching one, and it is easy to miss at the size these are printed on a key.
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.