Pilcrow

A reversed P with a doubled stem, marking the start of a paragraph.

Also known as: Paragraph mark, Paragraph sign, Backwards P, Blind P

Keyboard & punctuationEveryday & digitalStandard profile

Meanings

The pilcrow marks a paragraph. Modern word processors show it as the non-printing character revealed by 'show formatting'.

Common modern usageVerified fact
Marks the beginning of a paragraph, and cites paragraphs in referencing.
Contexts: Software
Common modern usageVerified fact
Appears in word processors as the non-printing mark shown when formatting characters are made visible, indicating where each paragraph ends.
Contexts: Software

A P-like figure facing left, with a filled bowl and two vertical stems.

Commonly confused with: Section sign
Paragraph against section; the two are adjacent in legal citation.

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but only a single source has been found so far, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is defined by a current official standard.

Pilcrow
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-30
Tertiary reference. Used for widely-agreed identity and origin summary, not for contested detail or exact dates.
Unicode Code Chart: Latin-1 Supplement (U+0080–U+00FF)
The Unicode Consortium · retrieved 2026-07-30
Authoritative for the character's code point, name and block only. Unicode assigns identity; it does not define what a symbol means in use.

Last reviewed 2026-07-30