What is an Octothorpe?

Octothorpe is a number sign with other names and is referred to as a hash mark or pound sign. Octothorpe is known to everyone with the hashtags that are often used in social media and thus the hashtags initiated their popularity.

The symbol of octothorpe is "#". The symbol got its name from the structure. The word "octo" means the eight points on the symbol. The symbol is made by crossing two horizontal lines over two vertical(up-standing) lines.

The hash symbol is commonly used in printing, telephone keypads along with its usage in computers.

The octothorpe is found in computers and laptop QWERTY keyboards. The position of the symbol is with the 3 number.

The page gives more information about the hash symbol by discussing:

• How to type the octothorpe?
• Position of octothorpe on the keyboard.
• Typing the # symbol on a smartphone.
• Typing # symbol on keyboards outside the U.S
• Uses of the hash symbol.

How to type the octothorpe?

To type the “#” symbol in Windows, macOS, or Linux, press the shift and 3 number keys on the keyboard simultaneously.

Position of Octothorpe on the keyboard

As said before "#" symbol is found in the number 3 key in the QWERTY keyboards. The keyboard, along with the hash symbol, is as below.

Typing the # symbol on a smartphone

To type the hash symbol on the smartphone or tablet operating on the Android Operating System, click on the keyboard that is present on the mobile phone, then click on the numbers section. After that, access the symbols section in that tap on the "#" symbol.

Typing # symbol on keyboards outside the U.S

Computers and laptops in other countries that do not use QWERTY keyboards will have octothorpe symbols in different positions. For example, the# symbol is found in the Italy keyboard along with the à and ° keys. To type the # symbol, press Alt and key at once.

Uses of the hash symbol

Hash symbol is used for the following purposes in computers, tablets, and smartphones.

• The pound symbol(#) is used for defining the hashtags. For example, #movie, #computersciencebooks.
• The pound symbol is used in social media(like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and youtube), and hashtags are used to categorize the text written after the symbol.
• The hash symbol represents a nonexecutable statement before the code lines.
• In the Internet Relay Channel(IRC) hash symbol is used to represent a chat channel. Example  #channel_name makes an identifier of a chat channel.
• When a hash is written before that number is used to indicate a number as an ordinal, consider #2 for "number two" or second in some comparison.