Asterism (typography)

In typography, an asterism, ⁂, is a typographic symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle, which is used for a variety of purposes. The name originates from the astronomical term for a group of stars.^[1]

⁂
Asterism (typography)
In Unicode	U+2042 ⁂ ASTERISM
Different from
Different from	U+0B83 ஃ TAMIL SIGN VISARGA U+2234 ∴ THEREFORE U+2235 ∵ BECAUSE

The asterism was originally used as a type of dinkus in typography, though increasingly rarely.^[2] It can also be used to mean "untitled" or author or title withheld – as seen, for example, in some editions of Album for the Young by composer Robert Schumann (№ 21, 26, and 30).^[3]

In meteorology, an asterism in a station model plot indicates moderate snowfall.^[4][5]

Dinkus

Main article: Dinkus

Asterisms used as dinkuses in the James Joyce novel Ulysses, the "Wandering Rocks" chapter, from the 1922 edition.^[6] The 1961 edition used a hollow white star (☆), and the 1984 edition used a row of three asterisks.

A dinkus is a typographical device to divide text, such as at section breaks. Its purpose is to "indicate minor breaks in text",^[7] to call attention to a passage, or to separate sub-chapters in a book. An asterism used this way is thus a type of dinkus: nowadays this usage of the symbol is nearly obsolete.^[2] More commonly used dinkuses are three dots or three asterisks in a horizontal row.^[8][9]

See also

• Asterism (disambiguation) (other uses of the word)
• Dingbat – Typographic symbol class
• Ellipsis – Triple-dot punctuation mark
• Signature mark – Mark identifying a section in bookbinding