Special characters are a selection of punctuation on a standard keyboard that are frequently used in passwords and sometimes in directories. Be explicit when referring to special characters. Use the following format when writing about them in text: the pipe ( | ) character, the at ( @ ) symbol.
| Special character | What to call it |
|---|---|
| ` | Backtick |
| ~ | Tilde |
| ! | Exclamation point |
| @ | At symbol |
| # | Pound sign |
| $ | Dollar sign |
| % | Percent sign |
| ^ | Caret |
| & | Ampersand |
| * | Asterisk |
| ( | Left parenthesis |
| ) | Right parenthesis |
| – | Dash, hyphen, minus sign |
| _ | Underscore |
| = | Equal sign |
| + | Plus sign |
| [ | Left bracket |
| { | Left brace |
| ] | Right bracket |
| } | Right brace |
| \ | Backslash |
| | | Pipe, vertical bar |
| ; | Semicolon |
| : | Colon |
| ‘ | Single quotation mark |
| “ | Double quotation mark |
| , | Comma |
| < | Less than, left-pointing angle bracket |
| . | Period |
| > | Greater than, right-pointing angle bracket |
| / | Forward slash |
| ? | Question mark |