O mark is the name of the circle symbol "◯". It is often used in East Asia to express affirmation. Its use is similar to that of the checkmark ("✓") in the Western world. Its opposite is the X mark ("✗" or "×").
The symbol has a variety of names and meanings in various cultures. In Japanese it is called marujirushi (Japanese: 丸印) or maru (Japanese: 丸) and expresses affirmation. In Korean it is called and expresses affirmation.
Japan interprets the symbol as an affirmation.
It also employs a number of related symbols (◎ ○ △ ×) in a system that expresses degrees of affirmation. A bullseye "◎" (nijūmaru; Japanese: 二重丸) is often used for "excellent", the circle is a plain affirmation, the triangle "△" (sankaku; Japanese: 三角) means "so-so" or "partially applicable", and the "×" expresses disagreement. This system is widely known in Japan, and thus often used without explanation. Sometimes ad-hoc adjustments are made to the system, but these are usually explained.
The hanamaru is a variant of the O mark. It is typically drawn as a spiral surrounded by rounded flower petals, suggesting a flower. It is frequently used in praising or complimenting children, and the motif often appears in children's characters and logos. The hanamaru is frequently written on tests if a student has achieved full marks or an otherwise outstanding result. It is sometimes used in place of an O mark in grading written response problems if a student's answer is especially good. Some teachers will add more rotations to the spiral the better the answer is.
Unicode provides various related symbols, including:
| Symbol | Unicode code point (hex) | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ○ | U+25CB | WHITE CIRCLE | ||
| ◎ | U+25CE | BULLSEYE | ||
| ● | U+25CF | BLACK CIRCLE | ||
| ◯ | U+25EF | LARGE CIRCLE | ||
| U+2B55 | HEAVY LARGE CIRCLE | |||
| U+1F646 | FACE WITH OK GESTURE |
has both text and emoji presentations, as shown in the table. It defaults to emoji presentation.
The emoji looks similar to hanamaru, although it represents a rubber stamp commonly used to grade students' written answers and is not usually recognized as hanamaru.