Check mark

A check or check mark (American English), checkmark (Philippine English), tickmark (Indian English) or tick (Australian, New Zealand and British English) is a mark (✓, ✔, etc.) used, primarily in the English-speaking world, to indicate the concept "yes" (e.g. "yes; this has been verified", "yes; that is the correct answer", "yes; this has been completed", or "yes; this [item or option] applies"). The x mark is also sometimes used for this purpose (most notably on election ballot papers, e.g. in the United Kingdom), but otherwise usually indicates "no", incorrectness, or failure. One of the earliest usages of a check mark as an indication of completion is on ancient Babylonian tablets "where small indentations were sometimes made with a stylus, usually placed at the left of a worker's name, presumably to indicate whether the listed ration has been issued."[1]

Check mark
U+2713 CHECK MARK (✓, ✓)
heavy check mark ballot box with check white heavy check mark

As a verb, to check (off) or tick (off) means to add such a mark. Printed forms, printed documents, and computer software (see checkbox) commonly include squares in which to place check marks.

International differences

The check mark is a predominant affirmative symbol of convenience in the English-speaking world because of its instant and simple composition. In other language communities, there are different conventions.

It is common in Swedish schools for a to indicate that an answer is incorrect,[2][3][4] while "R", from the Swedish rätt, i.e., "correct", is used to indicate that an answer is correct.

In Finnish, ✓ stands for väärin, i.e., "wrong", due to its similarity to a slanted v. The opposite, "correct", is marked with , a slanted vertical line emphasized with two dots[5] (see also commercial minus sign).

In Japan, the O mark is used instead of the check mark, and the X or ✓ mark are commonly used for wrong.[6]

In the Netherlands a 'V' is used to show that things are missing while the flourish of approval (or krul) is used for approving a section or sum.

Unicode

Unicode provides various check marks:

SymbolCode pointName
U+237BNOT CHECK MARK
U+2610BALLOT BOX
U+2611BALLOT BOX WITH CHECK
U+2705WHITE HEAVY CHECK MARK
U+2713CHECK MARK
U+2714HEAVY CHECK MARK
𐄂U+10102AEGEAN CHECK MARK
𝤿U+1D93FSIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK SMALL
𝥀U+1D940SIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK MEDIUM
𝥁U+1D941SIGNWRITING MOVEMENT-WALLPLANE CHECK LARGE
🗸U+1F5F8LIGHT CHECK MARK
🗹U+1F5F9BALLOT BOX WITH BOLD CHECK
🮱U+1FBB1INVERSE CHECK MARK

See also

References

  1. Tenney, Jonathan S. (2011-07-12). Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society. Brill. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004206892.i-268. ISBN 978-90-04-20704-2.
  2. "bock". Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien (in Swedish). Swedish Academy.
  3. "bock". Svenska Akademiens ordlista (in Swedish). Swedish Academy.
  4. "bock". Svenska Akademiens ordbok (in Swedish). Vol. 5. Swedish Academy. 1917.
  5. Version 3.2 of the Unicode Standard, General Punctuation 2002-03-27
  6. "Internationalization". W3.org. W3C. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
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