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.
The glyphs printed on keys and repeated in menus to show a shortcut. Grouped because they are learned the same way and looked up the same way: a reader sees an unfamiliar mark beside a menu item and has no name for it. Several carry mechanical history — shift and tab are named for what a typewriter physically did, and the enter arrow draws the path of a carriage return.
A looped square with four outward corners, marking the Mac command key.
A hollow upward arrow, marking the shift key.
A right-pointing arrow meeting a vertical bar, marking the tab key.
An arrow turning down then left, marking the enter or return key.
An arrow leaving a circle, marking the escape key.