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A leftward angle bracket feeding a file into a command.
A less-than sign after a command makes it read from the named file instead of from the terminal, which is how a program that expects typed input is given a file.
POSIX defines the less-than sign as input redirection: the command's standard input is taken from the named file.
Contexts: Software
Two straight strokes meeting at a point on the left, opening toward the right, drawn at the height of a line of text.
The same character used for a different job: comparison in mathematics, redirection in a shell.
Both are built from abstract forms, and both are used in software contexts.