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 a reader meets daily on labels, tools and packaging. The recurring finding is that a number on a label is rarely a measurement: a shoe size, a wire gauge, a pencil grade, a tyre load index and a steel designation are all codes within systems, several of which run backwards or differ irreconcilably between countries. The food members are the ones with legal weight — use-by and best-before differ in law as well as in meaning, an oval health mark certifies premises rather than a product, and country of origin means where a product last changed substantially rather than where its materials came from.
A number whose meaning depends entirely on which country's system.
A letter grading how wide a shoe is at a given length.
A number or letter that is a manufacturer's code, not a measurement.
A measurement in inches or centimetres, unlike most garment sizes.
A number keyed to a table of maximum loads.
A letter naming a maximum sustained speed.
Letters and numbers ranking a pencil's hardness and blackness.
A four-digit number naming an industrial colour exactly.
Six hexadecimal digits giving red, green and blue values.
Four percentages naming a colour in printing inks.
Recess shapes naming how a fastener is turned.
Numbers or radial lines on a head giving tensile strength.
A number that gets larger as the wire gets thinner.
Letters and numbers naming a cell's physical size and chemistry.
Letters and numbers naming composition and strength.
Grams per square metre, or pounds per unusual ream.
A digit, a country code and a farm number on each shell.
An oval carrying a country code and an approval number.
Two date marks meaning quite different things.
A code identifying which production run a product came from.
A gear description and a catch area on a fish label.
A statement of where a product was made or last changed.
Small pictograms for oven, hob, microwave and grill.
Size, material and tip type stamped on the shank.
A number giving the distance across the flats.
A stamp giving strength class, moisture and certification.
Two numbers giving crushing strength at twenty-eight days.
Circumference measurements dressed up as sizes.