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Star Symbols ★ ☆ ✦ ✧ — Every Star Symbol & Their Meanings

·8 min read

Stars are probably the most popular decorative symbols on the internet. They show up in bios, usernames, reviews, ratings, documents, and just about anywhere people want to add a little sparkle. But there are way more star symbols than most people realize — Unicode has dozens of them, and they're all subtly different.

I'm going to walk through every type of star symbol, what they mean, where they're used, and how to actually get them into your text. Plus you can always grab any of them from our star symbols collection.

Quick Copy-Paste: Most Popular Star Symbols

Here are the stars people search for most often:

That's a lot of stars. And that's not even all of them. But these cover about 95% of what people actually need.

Five-Pointed Stars: ★ and ☆

The classic. When someone says "star symbol," this is what they picture. The filled version ★ (U+2605) and the outline version ☆ (U+2606) are by far the most used star characters in existence.

You see these everywhere. Product ratings ("★★★★☆" for four out of five stars), decorative text, social media bios, document markers. They're universally supported — every modern font includes these two characters. If you only remember two star symbols, make it these.

The five-pointed star has a long history. It appears in flags (the US flag has 50 of them), military insignia, religious symbols, and corporate logos. In text, it typically means "notable," "favorite," or "rating." Gmail uses ★ to mark starred emails. Most todo apps use it for priority items.

Four-Pointed Stars: ✦ and ✧

These are the aesthetic darlings. Four-pointed stars ✦ and ✧ have become incredibly popular on Instagram, Tumblr, and TikTok bios. They look elegant. Minimal. Kind of like a sparkle or a diamond shape rotated 45 degrees.

People use them as separators between words: "name ✦ city ✦ age" or "✧ wanderlust ✧" wrapped around a word for emphasis. They pair beautifully with other decorative dot symbols for that clean aesthetic look.

Fun fact: the four-pointed star ✦ (U+2726) isn't technically a "star" in the astronomical sense — real stars don't have four points. The four points come from how camera lenses create diffraction spikes. So it's really a "lens flare" symbol. But nobody calls it that.

Six-Pointed Stars: ✡ ✶ ✵

Six-pointed stars are trickier. The Star of David ✡ (U+2721) is a specifically religious symbol in Judaism. Using it decoratively can be insensitive, so be thoughtful about context.

The generic six-pointed black star ✶ (U+2736) is more neutral — it's just a geometric shape. It looks great in decorative contexts and doesn't carry the same religious significance. If you want a six-pointed star for purely aesthetic reasons, ✶ is the safer pick.

Eight-Pointed Stars: ✴ ✷ ✸

Eight-pointed stars look busier and more decorative. They pop up in Islamic art and architecture quite a bit — the eight-pointed star (octagram) has deep significance in Islamic geometric patterns. In Unicode, ✴ (U+2734) is the basic version.

In everyday text use, eight-pointed stars work well for ornamental purposes. They're eye-catching without being overwhelming. Some people use them as fancy bullet points in lists or as section dividers in documents.

Star Emojis: ⭐ 🌟 💫 ✨

Star emojis deserve their own section because they behave differently from text symbols. While ★ looks the same everywhere (black star in your font's style), ⭐ renders as a colorful graphic that varies by platform. Apple's ⭐ looks different from Google's, which looks different from Samsung's.

Check out our emoji collection for more options.

How to Type Star Symbols

Windows

The asterisk * (Shift + 8) is right on your keyboard, but that's not really a star. For actual star symbols:

Mac

Open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space, then search "star." You'll get the full selection. There's no direct keyboard shortcut for star symbols on Mac, unfortunately.

HTML

For web developers:

Creative Uses for Star Symbols

Beyond the obvious rating systems, here are some ways people use stars creatively:

Stars combine nicely with heart symbols, flower symbols, and circle symbols for complex decorative patterns.

Stars in Different Cultures

Stars carry different meanings depending on cultural context. A few examples:

Understanding these associations helps you use star symbols appropriately. A six-pointed star in a casual context might read differently than you intended.

Compatibility Notes

The basic stars (★ ☆) work everywhere. No exceptions. They've been in Unicode since version 1.1 (1993), and every font supports them.

The decorative stars (✦ ✧ ✪ ✫ etc.) work on all modern devices but might render differently in older systems. On Windows XP-era machines (yes, some people still use them), you might see boxes instead.

Star emojis (⭐ 🌟 💫 ✨) require emoji support, which all smartphones and modern browsers have. In plain text environments like terminal windows or monospace editors, they might not display correctly.

Final Thoughts

Stars are simple but versatile. Whether you need them for a rating system, an Instagram bio, a document heading, or just to add some visual flair to a text message, there's a star symbol for the job. The filled ★ and outline ☆ handle most needs. The four-pointed ✦ wins for aesthetics. And ✨ is basically the universal "this is special" button.

Browse our full star symbols collection to find exactly the one you need, or mix and match from our other symbol categories to build something unique.

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