Toilets symbol

Meanings

Two simplified figures, conventionally read as a man and a woman, mark public toilets. It is a wayfinding symbol rather than a safety sign, so it carries no colour grammar — and its conventions are actively changing.

• Common modern usageVerified fact

  Identifies public toilets, and by direction the route to them.

  Contexts: Public information

• Common modern usageVerified fact

  Uses a pair of figures distinguished by a triangular skirt shape on one, a convention which conveys nothing about the facilities themselves and is read entirely by learned association.

  Contexts: Public information

• Common modern usageCommon usage

  Is being supplemented in many places by all-gender and accessible variants, so the two-figure form should not be read as the only current convention.

  Recorded as a change in signage practice. Symbolwise describes what the symbols are used to mean and takes no position on the policies behind them.

  Contexts: Public information

• Common modern usageVerified fact

  Is a public information symbol rather than a safety sign, so it carries no shape-and-colour safety grammar. It identifies a facility and may be drawn in any colour that suits its setting.

  Contexts: Public information

• Officially standardisedVerified fact

  Is registered as a public information symbol by the International Organization for Standardization, which is what makes the paired figures readable in an airport whose language a traveller does not have. The registered form is a pair of figures; how they are drawn is left to the designer within limits.

  Contexts: Public information

• Common modern usageVerified fact

  Varies more than most travellers expect. Many venues now show a single figure with a lavatory pan, an all-gender mark combining elements of both figures, or a triangle-and-circle scheme; the paired-figures convention is not universal and reading it as a rule rather than a convention leads people to the wrong door.

  Contexts: Public information

Variants

Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.

• All-gender form

  A single figure combining the trousered and skirted silhouettes, or a lavatory pan drawn alone, used for facilities not divided by gender.

• Accessible lavatory form

  The lavatory mark shown together with the International Symbol of Access, marking a cubicle designed for disabled users.

Visual description