Cool Text Symbols & Special Characters to Copy and Paste

There are over 149,000 characters in Unicode. Your keyboard gives you access to about 100 of them. That means there's a massive world of symbols, glyphs, and special characters hiding behind the scenes — stuff you can copy and paste right now without installing anything.

I'm talking about stars ★, crowns ♛, crosses ✠, musical notes ♫, mathematical symbols ∑, currency signs ₿, and thousands more. The kind of stuff that makes usernames, bios, documents, and messages actually stand out.

Here's a curated collection of the coolest ones, organized by category so you can find exactly what you need.

★ Stars and Asterisks

Stars are probably the most universally useful cool symbol. They work as bullet points, decorations, ratings, and just general emphasis. There's way more variety than you'd expect.

The filled star ★ and outlined star ☆ are classics. But look at ✦ and ✧ — those four-pointed stars show up constantly in aesthetic bios and Tumblr posts. The six-pointed ✡ is the Star of David. And ⁂ (asterism) is three asterisks in a triangle, used in literature to mark section breaks.

♛ Crowns, Royalty & Status

Crown symbols are big in gaming usernames, social media bios, and anywhere you want to project a "king" or "queen" energy.

The chess king ♔ and queen ♕ symbols get used as crowns all the time, even outside of chess contexts. Pair them with a name for instant status: ♛ Alex or Sarah ♕.

☯ Religious, Spiritual & Mystical

These symbols carry deep cultural meaning. They show up in bios, art, and anywhere people express their spiritual identity.

The yin-yang ☯ and peace sign ☮ are probably the most commonly used. The ankh ☥ (ancient Egyptian symbol of life) has had a massive comeback in alternative fashion and tattoo culture.

→ Arrows in Every Direction

Arrows are both practical and decorative. Use them to point at things, create visual flow, or just add some motion to static text.

The simple right arrow → is incredibly versatile. Use it in bios (designer → photographer → dreamer), in documents as a flow indicator, or in messages to point at links. The curved arrows ⤴ ⤵ are great for social media where you need to say "look up" or "check below."

♫ Music Notes

Whether you're a musician, a music lover, or just want to add some melody to your text:

♫ and ♪ are the go-to text music notes. They work everywhere since they're basic Unicode (been around since the original character set). The emoji versions 🎵 🎶 are more colorful but don't render well in all contexts.

✓ Check Marks and Boxes

Check marks are perfect for to-do lists, feature comparisons, and anywhere you need to show completion or approval.

✓ for yes, ✗ for no — clean and simple. ☑ and ☐ look like actual checkboxes, which is handy in documents where you can't use real form elements. The green ✅ emoji is everywhere on social media for verification-style lists.

∞ Math and Science Symbols

Even if you're not writing a research paper, math symbols look cool in the right context. The infinity symbol alone is one of the most tattooed and bio'd symbols on the internet.

Beyond math, these symbols work great for branding. Lots of tech companies and startups use ∆ (delta, meaning change), Ω (omega), or π (pi) in their names and logos.

💰 Currency and Money

Most people know $ € £ ¥ but there are way more currency symbols out there:

₿ (Bitcoin) was only added to Unicode in 2017 but it's already one of the most recognizable symbols globally. If you do anything finance-related online, having these ready to copy is genuinely useful.

♠ Card Suits and Games

Card suit symbols have transcended their original purpose. They show up in fashion, tattoos, usernames, and anywhere that needs a touch of gambling aesthetic.

☠ Warning, Danger & Edgy

For when you need that dark, dangerous, or cautionary vibe:

☢ (radioactive) and ☣ (biohazard) were added to Unicode specifically because they appear on real-world signage. But online, they've become purely aesthetic. Same with ☠ (skull and crossbones) — it's more "edgy username" than actual poison warning.

Shapes and Geometric Symbols

Clean geometric shapes are surprisingly useful as decorative elements, bullet points, or design accents:

Circles ● and squares ■ make great custom bullet points in places where you can't change the CSS. Triangles ▲ ▼ are used in UI design to indicate dropdowns and collapsible sections.

♡ Hearts (The Full Collection)

We covered hearts in our heart keyboard guide, but here's a quick reference of the coolest variations:

How to Use These Symbols

All the symbols on this page are regular Unicode text. That means you can:

• Copy and paste them anywhere — Instagram, Twitter, Discord, TikTok, emails, documents, texts
• Use them in usernames on most platforms (check if the platform strips special characters)
• Put them in bios — they don't count as images, they're just text
• Use them in documents — Word, Google Docs, Notion, whatever you use
• Type them in code — they work in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and any programming language that supports UTF-8

Where to Find More

This article covered maybe 200 symbols out of the 149,000+ available in Unicode. For organized, searchable collections with one-click copy:

• Browse all symbol categories on iLoveSymbols
• Every symbol is one click to copy
• Works on all devices and platforms
• No installation or special keyboard required

Bookmark the homepage and you'll never need to Google "how to type [symbol]" again.