Pilcrow

The pilcrow, , is a handwritten or typographical character used to identify a paragraph. It is also called the paragraph mark (or sign or symbol), paraph, or blind P.

This article is about the typographical mark. For the novel, see Pilcrow (novel).
"Paragraph mark" redirects here. For the symbol §, sometimes used as a paragraph mark, see Section sign.
Not to be confused with Paragraph separator.

Pilcrow
In UnicodeU+00B6 PILCROW SIGN (¶)
Different from
Different fromU+00A7 § SECTION SIGN
Related
See also
  • U+204B ⁋ REVERSED PILCROW SIGN
  • U+2761 ❡ CURVED STEM PARAGRAPH SIGN ORNAMENT
  • U+2E3F ⸿ CAPITULUM
  • U+2E4D ⹍ PARAGRAPHUS MARK

The pilcrow may be used at the start of separate paragraphs or to designate a new paragraph in one long piece of copy, as Eric Gill did in his 1931 book An Essay on Typography. The pilcrow was a type of rubrication used in the Middle Ages to mark a new train of thought, before the convention of visually discrete paragraphs was commonplace. In some medieval texts, it indicated a new sentence. In recent times, the symbol has been given a wider variety of roles, as listed below.

The pilcrow is usually drawn similarly to a lowercase q reaching from descender to ascender height; the bowl (loop) can be filled or unfilled. It may also be drawn with the bowl stretching further downwards, resembling a reversed D; this is more often seen in older printing.

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