Circled dot explained

The circled dot, circumpunct, or circle with a point at its centre may refer to one or more of these glyphs or articles

Mark:	⨀ ⊙ ☉ ◉ ʘ
Unicode:
Different From:

Solar system

• One of many solar symbols used to represent the Sun
• (Planet symbol in astronomy)
  • Gold (Alchemical symbols: planetary metals)
• Gardiner N5 : The sun, part of the representation of the name of Ra in Egyptian hieroglyphs. (This hieroglyph is shown conventionally with a small circle (rather than a dot) with the larger circle.
• The sun / a day (Chinese oracle script, the modern character being 日)

Philosophy and psychology

• Self in Jungian psychology: "The central dot represents the Ego whereas the Self can be said to consist of the whole with the centred dot."
• Monism: "The circled dot was used by the Pythagoreans and later Greeks to represent the first metaphysical being, the Monad or The Absolute"

Language and linguistics

• Bilabial clicks, a symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
• Hwair, a letter in the Gothic alphabet
• Yas, a letter in the Tifinagh Alphabet (Berber languages)
• Brāhmī letter th
• Eye (Blissymbols)
• A brief contact (brush) of the signing hand in SignWriting

Mathematics

• The mathematical operator represents
  • the XNOR gate or
  • the Hadamard product, the element wise multiplication of matrices of same size denoted by

A \odot B

• The mathematical operator (see Unicode Supplemental Mathematical Operators)
• In geometry, it is often the symbol for a circle

Computing

• (Unicode Geometric Shapes)
  • An indication of selected choice of radio button
  • the application launcher key on Chromebooks (also known as the "everything key")
  • In Japan, the symbol is called tainome and is a kind of typographical "bullet"

Other uses

• A nazar is a circled-dot-shaped amulet
• Center of pressure
• The musical symbol for Latin: tempus perfectum cum prolatione perfecta, a Mensuration sign for meter
• Used, or cancelled, stamp (philately)
• The trademark of the Target Corporation
• As a symbol of the phallus or nature's generative principle and of an Entered Apprentice Freemason
• City centre (European road-signs)
• End of trail / End of the game. Gone home. (scouting)
• The Symbol of "Waterhole" (or a related concept) in Australian Aborigine Art
• In Germany it is symbol for a "Gestempelte Briefmarke" (canceled stamp), while a star means "postfrisch" (mint Stamp)
• In physics, it can be used to denote a vector facing out of the page
• Zugzwang in chess notation

See also

• The Lost Symbol – a novel by Dan Brown that uses this symbol.