U2225

U+2225, commonly rendered as the symbol ∥, is the Unicode code point for the parallel-to operator. It belongs to the Mathematical Operators block and is used in various branches of mathematics and related fields to indicate parallelism.

In geometry and linear algebra, the symbol denotes that two lines or directions are parallel, as in a ∥ b. It is also used in some contexts to denote a parallel relation between sets or processes. The symbol is distinct from the single vertical bar and from the double vertical bars used to denote norms, which are typically written with | | or sometimes with a different typographic treatment.

Encoding and representations: U+2225 is the code point for the parallel-to symbol. In Unicode-aware text, it appears as a single glyph that consists of two vertical strokes. HTML representations include the named entity ∥ as well as the numeric references ∥ or ∥. In plain ASCII contexts, the symbol is not available and must be represented by an approximation or described text.

Notes and related symbols: The parallel-to symbol should not be confused with the norm notation that uses double vertical bars around a quantity (for example, ||x||). Other related symbols include the not-parallel symbol ∄ or ∤, which convey the opposite relation in specific contexts.

See also: other mathematical operators in the Unicode mathematical operators block, such as U+2227 (∧) and U+2228 (∨), which represent logical conjunction and disjunction, respectively.