North West Arrow to Long Bar ↸

↸ (U+21B8) is a standard Unicode character that you can copy and paste anywhere text is accepted. This page provides a concise reference with safe tips, internal links, and practical guidance so you can use it reliably across apps and platforms.

What it is and where it’s used: North West Arrow to Long Bar is part of the Symbols family (block: Arrows). If you need styled or decorative alternatives, try our Fancy Text tool to generate compatible text that works in most modern interfaces.

History & usage: Character North West Arrow to Long Bar (U+21B8) belongs to the Arrows block in the Common script. It is a symbol used in text and diagrams to show a path that moves up and to the left with a long bar at the end. The name helps describe its shape and direction. In practice, it communicates a direction, a transition, or a link to a preceding item in lists or flowcharts. The symbol can appear in user interfaces to indicate backward movement or a return step. It also helps when a diagram needs a precise pointer that combines a corner turn with a bar. The usage note says arrows commonly indicate direction and navigation cues in interfaces and documents. This keeps authors from overusing icons and helps readers understand the flow. As a typographic mark, it is used sparingly and where a regular arrow would be ambiguous. In fonts and encoding, it is one of many symbols that support visual guidance without extra text. It is safe to include in plain text, and it does not carry built‑in semantics beyond its arrow meaning.

Copy and input: the quickest method is to copy the character here. You can also insert it by its codepoint U+21B8 in many development tools or editors. Some operating systems provide a character viewer or input palette that lets you search by name or code and insert the glyph into documents.

Display and fallback: if you see an empty box (tofu) or a placeholder rectangle, the active font might not include this codepoint. Switching to a font with broader Unicode coverage or using a fallback font usually fixes the issue. On the web, ensure the page’s font stack includes a general‑purpose fallback.

Related references: browse the Categories for similar characters. When choosing a symbol, prefer the official codepoint for semantic clarity and better compatibility with search, copy, and accessibility tooling.

See our category page for related symbols.