Slash (punctuation)

"/" redirects here. For other uses, see/ (disambiguation).

Theslashis a slanting linepunctuation mark/.It is also known as astroke,asolidus,aforward slashandseveral other historical or technical names.Once used to markperiodsandcommas,the slash is now used to representdivisionandfractions,exclusive 'or'andinclusive 'or',and as adate separator.

/
Slash or solidus
⁄ ∕ ／ Fraction slash Division slash Fullwidth solidus

A slash in the reverse direction\is known as abackslash.

History

Slashes may be found in early writing as a variant form ofdashes,vertical strokes,etc. The present use of a slash distinguished from such other marks derives from themedieval Europeanvirgule(Latin:virgula,lit."twig" ),which was used as aperiod,scratch comma,andcaesura mark.(The first sense was eventually lost to thelow dotand the other two developed separately into thecomma,andcaesura mark||) Its use as a comma became especially widespread inFrance,where it was also used to mark the continuation of a word onto the next line of a page, a sense later taken on by thehyphen-.TheFrakturscript used throughoutCentral Europein theearly modern periodused a single slash as a scratch comma and a double slash//as a dash. The double slash developed into thedouble oblique hyphen⸗anddouble hyphen⹀or゠before being usually simplified intovarious single dashes.

In the 18th century, the mark was generally known in English as the "oblique".but particularly the less verticalfraction slash.The variant "oblique stroke" was increasingly shortened to "stroke",which became the common British name for the character, although printers and publishing professionals often instead referred to it as an" oblique ". In the 19th and early 20th century, it was also widely known as the"shilling mark"or"solidus",from its use as a notation or abbreviation for theshilling.The name "slash" is a recent development, not appearing inWebster's Dictionaryuntil the Third Edition (1961)but has gained wide currency through its use incomputing,a context where it is sometimes used in British English in preference to "stroke". Clarifying terms such as "forward slash" have been coined owing to widespread use ofMicrosoft'sDOSandWindowsoperating systems,which use thebackslashextensively.

Usage

Disjunction and conjunction

Connecting alternatives

See also:Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender

The slash is commonly used in many languages as a shorter substitute for theconjunction"or", typically with the sense ofexclusive or(e.g., Y/N permits yes or no but not both).Its use in this sense is somewhat informal,although it is used inphilologyto note variants (e.g.,virgula/uirgula) andetymologies(e.g.,F.virgule/LL.virgula/L.virga/PIE.*wirgā).

Such slashes may be used to avoid taking a position innaming disputes.One example is theSyriac naming dispute,which prompted theUSandSwedish censusesto use the respective official designations "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac"and"Assyrier/Syrianer"for the ethnic group.

In particular, since the late 20th century, the slash is used to permit moregender-neutral languagein place of the traditionalmasculineorpluralgender neutrals. In the case ofEnglish,this is usually restricted todegendered pronounssuch as "he/she" or "s/he". Most otherIndo-European languagesinclude more far-reaching use ofgrammatical gender.In these, the separate gendereddesinences(grammatical suffices) of the words may be given divided by slashes or set off withparentheses.For example, inSpanish,hijois a son and ahijais a daughter; some proponents of gender-neutral language advocate the use ofhijo/aorhijo(a)when writing for a general audience or addressing a listener of unknown gender.Less commonly,at sign⟨@⟩is used instead:hij@.Similarly, inGermanand some Scandinavian and Baltic languages,Sekretärrefers to any secretary andSekretärinto an explicitly female secretary; some advocates of gender neutrality support forms such asSekretär/-infor general use. This does not always work smoothly, however: problems arise in the case of words likeArzt('doctor') where the explicitly female formÄrztinisumlautedand words likeChinese('Chinese person') where the explicitly female formChinesinloses the terminal-e.

Connecting non-contrasting items

The slash is also used as a shorter substitute for the conjunction "and" orinclusive or(i.e., A or B or both),typically in situations where it fills the role of a hyphen oren dash.For example, the "Hemingway/Faulkner generation" might be used to discuss the era of theLost Generationinclusive of the people around and affected by bothHemingwayandFaulkner.This use is sometimes proscribed, as byNew Hart's Rules,the style guide for theOxford University Press.

Presenting routes

The slash, as a form of inclusive or, is also used to punctuate the stages of a route (e.g.,Shanghai/Nanjing/Wuhan/Chongqingas stops on a tour of theYangtze).

Introducing topic shifts

The wordslashis also developing as a way to introduce topic shifts or follow-up statements.Slashcan introduce a follow-up statement, such as, "I really love that hot dog place on Liberty Street. Slash can we go there tomorrow?" It can also indicate a shift to an unrelated topic, as in "JUST SAW ALEX! Slash I just chubbed on oatmeal raisin cookies at north quad and i miss you." The new usage of "slash" appears most frequently in spoken conversation, though it can also appear in writing.

In speech

Sometimes the wordslashis used in speech as aconjunctionto represent the written role of the character (as if a written slash were being read aloud from text), e.g. "bee slash mosquito protection" for a beekeeper's net hood,and "There's a little bit of nectar slash honey over here, but really it's not a lot." (said by a beekeeper examining in a beehive),and "GastornisslashDiatryma"for two supposed genera of prehistoric birds which are now thought to be one genus.

Mathematics

Fractions

See also:Unicode subscripts and superscripts § Fraction slash

The fraction slash⟨ ⁄⟩is used between two numbers to indicate afractionorratio.Such formatting developed as a way to write the horizontalfraction baron a single line of text. It is first attested inEnglandandMexicoin the 18th century.This notation is known as an online, solidus,or shilling fraction.Nowadays fractions, unlike inline division, are often given using smaller numbers,superscript,andsubscript(e.g.,²³⁄₄₃). This notation is responsible for the current form of thepercent⟨%⟩,permille⟨‰⟩,andpermyriad⟨‱⟩signs, developed from the horizontal form⁠0/0⁠which represented an early modern corruption of an Italian abbreviation ofper cento.

Many fonts draw the fraction slash (and the division slash) less vertical than the slash. The separate encoding is also intended to permit automatic formatting of the preceding and succeeding digits by glyph substitution with numerator and denominator glyphs (e.g., display of "1, fraction slash, 2" as "½" ),though this is not yet supported in many environments or fonts. Because of this lack of support, some authors still useUnicode subscripts and superscriptsto compose fractions, and many fonts design these characters for this purpose. In addition, all of the multiples less than 1 of¹⁄_nfor 2 ≤ n ≤ 6 and n = 8 (e.g.²⁄₃and⁵⁄₈), as well as¹⁄₇,¹⁄₉,and¹⁄₁₀,are in the UnicodeNumber FormsorLatin-1 Supplementblock asprecomposed characters.

This notation can also be used when the concept of fractions is extended from numbers to arbitrary rings by the method oflocalization of a ring.

Division

The division slash⟨∕⟩,equivalent to thedivision sign⟨÷⟩,may be used between two numbers to indicatedivision.For example,23 ÷ 43can also be written as23 ∕ 43.This use developed from thefraction slashin the late 18th or early 19th century.The formatting was advocated byDe Morganin the mid-19th century.

Quotient of set

See also:Set (mathematics)

Aquotient of a setis informally a new set obtained by identifying some elements of the original set. This is denoted as a fraction$S/R$(sometimes even as a built fraction), where the numerator$S$is the original set (often equipped with some algebraic structure). What is appropriate as denominator depends on the context.

In the most general case, the denominator is anequivalence relation$\sim$on the original set$S$,and elements are to be identified in the quotient$S/{\sim }$if they are equivalent according to$\sim$;this is technically achieved by making$S/{\sim }$the set of allequivalence classesof$\sim$.

Ingroup theory,the slash is used to markquotient groups.The general form is$G/N$,where$G$is the original group and$N$is the normal subgroup; this is read "$G$mod$N$",where" mod "is short for"modulo".Formally this is a special case of quotient by an equivalence relation, where$g\sim h$iff$g=hn$for some$n\in N$.Since many algebraic structures (rings,vector spaces,etc.) in particular are groups, the same style of quotients extend also to these, although the denominator may need to satisfy additionalclosureproperties for the quotient to preserve the full algebraic structure of the original (e.g. for the quotient of a ring to be a ring, the denominator must be anideal).

When the original set is the set ofintegers$\mathbb {Z}$,the denominator may alternatively be just an integer:$\mathbb {Z} /n$.This is an alternative notation for the set$\mathbb {Z} _{n}$ofintegers modulon(needed because$\mathbb {Z} _{n}$is also notation for the very differentring ofn-adic integers).$\mathbb {Z} /n$is an abbreviation of$\mathbb {Z} /n\mathbb {Z}$or$\mathbb {Z} /(n)$,which both are ways of writing the set in question as a quotient of groups.

Combining slash

Slashes may also be used as acombining characterin mathematical formulae. The most important use of this is that combining a slash with arelationnegates it, producing e.g. 'not equal'$\neq$as negation of$=$or 'not in'$\notin$as negation of$\in$;these slashed relation symbols are always implicitly defined in terms of the non-slashed base symbol. The graphical form of the negation slash is mostly the same as for a division slash, except in some cases where that would look odd; the negation$\nmid$of$\mid$(divides) and negation$\nsim$of$\sim$(various meanings) customarily both have their negations slashes less steep and in particular shorter than the usual one.

TheFeynman slash notationis an unrelated use of combining slashes, mostly seen inquantum field theory.This kind of combining slash takes a vector base symbol and converts it to a matrix quantity. Technically this notation is a shorthand for contracting the vector with theDirac gamma matrices,so$A\!\!\!/=\gamma ^{\mu }A_{\mu }$;what one gains is not only a more compact formula, but also not having to allocate a letter as the contracted index.

Computing

The slash, sometimes distinguished as "forward slash", is used incomputingin a number of ways, primarily as a separator among levels in a given hierarchy, for example in the path of a filesystem.

File paths

The slash is used as thepathcomponent separator in manycomputeroperating systems (e.g., Unix'spictures/image.png). InUnixandUnix-likesystems, such asmacOSandLinux,the slash is also used for thevolumeroot directory(e.g., the initial slash in/usr/john/pictures). Confusion of the slash with the backslash⟨\⟩largely arises from the use of the latter as the path component separator in the widely used MS-DOS andMicrosoft Windowssystems.

Networking

The slash is used in a similar fashion in internetURLs(e.g.,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(punctuation)).Often this portion of such URLs corresponds with files on a Unixserverwith the same name, and this is where this convention forinternetURLs comes from.

The slash in anIP address(e.g.,192.0.2.0/29) indicates the prefix size inCIDR notation.The number of addresses of asubnetmay be calculated as 2^{address size − prefix size},in which the address size is 128 forIPv6and 32 forIPv4.For example, in IPv4, the prefix size/29 gives: 2^32–29= 2³= 8 addresses.

Programming

The slash is used as adivision operatorin mostprogramming languageswhileAPLuses it for reduction (fold) and compression (filter). The double slash is used byRexxas amodulo operator,andPython(starting in version 2.2) uses a double slash for division which rounds (usingfloor) to an integer. InRakuthe double slash is used as a "defined-or" alternative to||.A dot and slash⟨./⟩is used inMATLABandGNU Octaveto indicate an element-by-element division of matrices.

Commentsthat begin with/*(a slash and an asterisk) and end with*/were introduced inPL/Iand subsequently adopted bySAS,C,Rexx,C++,Java,JavaScript,PHP,CSS,andC#.A double slash//is also used byC99,C++, C#, PHP, Java,Swift,and JavaScript to start a single line comment.

InSGMLand derived languages such asHTMLandXML,a slash is used in closing tags. For example, in HTML,<b>begins a section ofboldtext and</b>closes it. In XHTML, slashes are also necessary for "self-closing" elements such as thenewlinecommand<br />where HTML has simply<br>.

In a style originating in theDigital Equipment Corporationline of operating systems (OS/8,RT-11,TOPS-10,et cetera),Windows,DOS,someCP/Mprograms,OpenVMS,andOS/2all use the slash to indicatecommand-line options.For example, the commanddir/wis understood as using the commanddir( "directory" ) with the "wide" option. No space is required between the command and the switch; this was the reason for the choice to use backslashes as the path separator since one would otherwise be unable to run a program in a different directory.

Slashes are used as the standard delimiters forregular expressions,although other characters can be used instead.

IBM JCLuses a double slash to start each line in a batch job stream except for /* and /&.

Programs

IRCand many in-game chat clients use the slash to mark commands, such as joining and leaving a chat room or sending private messages. For example, in IRC,/join #servicesis a command to join thechannel"services" and/meis a command to format the following message as though it were an action instead of a spoken message. InMinecraft's chat function, the slash is used for executing console and plugin commands. InSecond Life's chat function, the slash is used to select the "communications channel", allowing users to direct commands to virtual objects "listening" on different channels. For example, if a virtual house's lights were set to use channel 42, the command "/42 on" would turn them on. InDiscord,slash commands are used to send special messages and execute commands, like sending ashrug emoji (¯\_(ツ)_/¯)or a table flip emoji ((╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻), or changing one's nickname using "/nick". Slash commands can also be used to use Discord bots.

TheGedcomstandard for exchanging computerized genealogical data uses slashes to delimit surnames; an example would be Bill /Smith/ Jr. Slashes around surnames are also used inPersonal Ancestral File.

Electronics

A leading slash is one of several common conventions for indicating anactive-lowdigital signal, which performs the named function when at a low voltage level.For example,dynamic random-access memoryhas active-low Chip Select, Row Address Strobe and Column Address Strobe signals, commonly written/CS,/RAS,and/CAS.This extends to signals which select between two options, such as "R/W",which indicates that the function is" read "when high and" write "when low. (Sometimes written asR/Wfor greater clarity.

Currency

Main article:Shilling

Sign inKisorowith prices inUgandan shillings;note the use of the '/=' notation.

The slash (as the "shilling mark" or "solidus" )was an abbreviation for theshilling,a formercoinof the United Kingdom andits former colonies.Before thedecimalisation of currency in Britain,its currency abbreviations (collectively£sd) represented theirLatinnames, derived from amedieval French modificationof the lateRoman libra,solidus,anddenarius.Thus, onepennyless than twopoundswas written£1 19s 11dor£1 19ſ 11d.During the period whenEnglish orthographyincluded thelong s,ſorſ,(abbreviatingshilling) the ſ came to be written as a single slash.The d. might be omitted, and "2ſ6" ( "two shillings and sixpence" ) became simplified as 2/6.Amounts in full pounds, shillings and pence could be written in many different ways, for example: £1 9s 6d, £1.9.6, £1-9-6, and even £1/9/6d (with a slash usedalsoto separate pounds and shillings).The same style was also used under theBritish Rajand early independent India for the predecimalizationrupee/anna/piesystem.

In five East African countries (Kenya,Tanzania,Uganda,Somalia,and thede factocountry ofSomaliland), where the national currencies are denominated in shillings, thedecimal separatoris a slash mark (e.g., 2/50). Where the minor unit is zero, anequals signis used (e.g., 5/=).

Dates

Slashes are a commoncalendar dateseparatorusedacross many countriesand by some standards such as theCommon Log Formatused by web servers. Depending on context, it may be in the form Day/Month/Year, Month/Day/Year, or Year/Month/Day. If only two elements are present, they typically denote a day and month in some order. For example,9/11is a common American way of writing the date 11 September; Britons write this as 11/9. Owing to the ambiguity across cultures, the practice of using only two elements to denote a date is sometimes proscribed.

Because of the world's many varyingconventional date and time formats,ISO 8601advocates the use of a Year-Month-Day system separated by hyphens (e.g.,Victory in Europe Dayoccurred on 1945-05-08). In the ISO 8601 system, slashes represent date ranges: "1939/1945" represents what is more commonly written inAnglophonecountries as "1939–1945". The autumn term of a northern-hemisphere school year might be marked "2010-09-01/12-22".

In English, a range marked by a slash often has a separate meaning from one marked by a dash or hyphen."24/25 December" would mark the time shared by both days (i.e., the night fromChristmas EvetoChristmas morning) rather than the time made up by both days together, which would be written "24–25 December". Similarly, a historical reference to "1066/67" might imply an event occurred during the winter of late 1066 and early 1067,whereas a reference to 1066–67 would cover the entirety of both years. The usage was particularly common in British English duringWorld War II,where such slash dates were used fornight-bombingair raids.It is also used by some police forces in the United States.

Numbering

The slash is used in numbering to note totals. For example, "page 17/35" indicates that the relevant passage is on the 17th page of a 35-page document. Similarly, the marking "#333/500" on a product indicates it is the 333rd out of 500 identical products or out of a batch of 500 such products. For scores on schoolwork, in games, and so on, "85/100" indicates 85 points were attained out of a possible 100.

Slashes are also sometimes used to mark ranges in numbers that already include hyphens or dashes. One example is theISO treatment of dating.Another is theUS Air Force's treatment of aircraft serial numbers, which are normally written to note the fiscal year and aircraft number. For example, "85-1000" notes the thousandth aircraft ordered in fiscal year 1985. To indicate the next fifty subsequent aircraft, a slash is used in place of a hyphen or dash: "85-1001/1050".

Linguistic transcription

Main article:International Phonetic Alphabet § Brackets and transcription delimiters

A pair of slashes (as "slants") are used in thetranscriptionofspeechto enclosepronunciations(i.e.,phonetic transcriptions). For example, theIPAtranscription of the English pronunciation of "solidus" is written/ˈsɒlɪdəs/.Properly, slashes markbroad or phonemic transcriptions,whereas narrow,allophonictranscriptions are enclosed bysquare brackets.For example, the wordlittlemay be broadly rendered as/ˈlɪtəl/but a careful transcription of thevelarization of the second Lwould be written[ˈlɪɾɫ̩].

Insociolinguistics,a double or triple slash may also be used in the transcription of atraditional sociolinguistic interviewor in other type of linguistic elicitation to represent simultaneous speech, interruptions, and certain types ofspeech disfluencies.

Single and double slashes are often used as typographic substitutes for theclick lettersǀ,ǁ.

Adiaphonemictranscription may be marked in several ways, e.g. with a pair of slash marks (⫽◌⫽).

Poetry

The slash is used in variousscansionnotations for representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse, typically to indicate a stressed syllable.

Line breaks

The slash (as a "virgule" ) offset by spaces to either side is used to markline breakswhen transcribing text from a multi-line format into a single-line one.It is particularly common in quotingpoetry,song lyrics,anddramaticscripts, formats where omitting the line breaks risks losing meaningful context. For example, here is a part ofHamlet'ssoliloquy:

To be, or not to be,that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them...

— Hamlet,Act II, Scene ii

If someone wanted to quote the above soliloquy in a prose paragraph, it is standard to mark the line breaks as follows: "To be, or not to be, that is thequestion: /Whether 'tis nobler in the mind tosuffer /The slings and arrows of outrageousFortune,/Or to take arms against a sea oftroubles, /And by opposing end them... "Less often, virgules are used in markingparagraphbreaks when quoting aprosepassage. Some style guides, such asNew Hart's,prefer to use a pipe|in place of the slash to mark these line and paragraph breaks.

The virgule may be thinner than a standard slash when typeset. In computing contexts, it may be necessary to use anon-breaking spacebefore the virgule to prevent it from beingwidowedon the next line.

Abbreviation

The slash has become standard in several abbreviations. Generally, it is used to mark two-letterinitialismssuch as A/C (short for "air conditioner" ), w/o ( "without" ), b/w ( "black and white" or, less often, "between" ), w/e ( "whatever" or, less often, "weekend" or "week ending" ), i/o ( "input/output"), r/w (" read/write "), and n/a (" not applicable "). Other initialisms employing the slash include w/ (" with ") and w/r/t (" with regard to "). Such slashed abbreviations are somewhat more common in British English and were more common around theSecond World War(as with "S/E" to mean "single-engined" ). The abbreviation 24/7 (denoting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) describes a business that is always open or unceasing activity.

The slash inderived unitssuch as m/s (meters per second) is not an abbreviation slash, but a straight division. It is however in that position read as 'per' rather than e.g. 'over', which can be seen as analogous to units whose symbols are pure abbreviations such as mph (miles per hour), although in abbreviations 'per' is 'p' or dropped entirely (psi, pounds per square inch) rather than a slash.

In theUS government,the names of offices within various departments are abbreviated using slashes, starting with the larger office and following with its subdivisions. For example, theFederal Aviation Administration'sOffice of Commercial Space Transportationis formally abbreviated FAA/AST.

Proofreading

The slash or vertical bar (as a "separatrix") is used inproofreadingto mark the end ofmargin notesor to separate margin notes from one another. The slash is also sometimes used in various proofreadinginitialisms,such as l/c and u/c for changes tolowerandupper case,respectively.

Typist

In formal business correspondence, when a letter is typed by someone other than the person responsible for its contents, it is standard to add a suffix with the initials of the author (in upper-case), and typist (in lower-case) after the signature block, separated by a slash. For example, a letter typed by D.E. at the direction of A.B.C. would include the line "ABC/de".

Fiction

The slash is used infan fictionto mark theromantic pairinga piece will focus upon (e.g., a K/S denoted aStar Trekstory would focus on a sexual relationship betweenKirkandSpock), a usage which developed in the 1970s from the earlier friendship pairings marked byampersands(e.g., K&S). The genre as a whole is now known asslash fiction.Because it is more generally associated withhomosexual malerelationships, lesbian slash fiction is sometimes distinguished asfemslash.In situations where other pairings occur, the genres may be distinguished as m/m, f/f, and so on.

Libraries

The slash is used under theAnglo-American Cataloguing Rulesto separate the title of a work from its statement of responsibility (i.e., the listing of its author, director, etc.). Like aline break,this slash is surrounded by a single space on either side. For example:

• Gone with the Wind / by Margaret Mitchell.
• Star Trek II. The Wrath of Khan [videorecording] / Paramount Pictures.

The format is used in bothcard catalogsand online records.

Addresses

The slash is sometimes used as an abbreviation for building numbers. For example, in some contexts,8/A Evergreen Gardens specifies Apartment 8 in Building A of the residential complex Evergreen Gardens. In the United States, however, such an address refers to the first division of Apartment 8 and is simply a variant of Apartment 8A or 8-A. Similarly in the United Kingdom, an address such as 12/2 Anywhere Road means flat (or apartment) 2 in the building numbered 12 on Anywhere Road.

The slash is also used in the United States in the postal abbreviation for "care of." For example, Judy Smith c/o Bob Smith could be used when Bob Smith is receiving mail on Judy's behalf. Typically, this would be used in a situation where someone is either out of town, in an institution or hotel, or temporarily staying at another's address.

In Spanish address writings, "c/" is used as the abbreviation of "calle" (or "carrer" in Catalan) meaning "street".

Music

Slashes are used inmusical notationas an alternative to writing out specificnoteswhere it is easier to read than traditional notation or where the player canimprovise.They are commonly used to indicatechordseither in place of or in combination with traditional notation and fordrummersas an indication to continue with the previously indicated style.

Sports

A slash is used to mark aspare(knocking down all ten pins in two throws) when scoringten-pinandduckpin bowling.

Text messaging

In online messaging, a slash might be used to imitate the formatting of a chat command (e.g., writing "/fliptable" as though there were such a command) or the closing tags of languages such as HTML (e.g., writing "/endrant" to end a diatribe or "/s" to mark the preceding text assarcastic). A pair of slashes is sometimes used as a way to markitalic text,where no special formatting is available (e.g., /italics/).

Before an e-signature

In legal writing, especially in a pleading, attorneys often sign their name with an "s" that is either enclosed by two slashes or followed by a single slash and preceding the attorney's name.An example would be the following:

/s/ Bob Smith

Attorney for Plaintiff

As a letter

TheIraqw languageof Tanzania uses the slash as a letter, representing thevoiced pharyngeal fricative,as in/ameeni,"woman".

Spacing

There are usually no spaces either before or after a slash. According toNew Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide,a slash is usually written without spacing on either side when it connects single words, letters or symbols.Exceptions are inrepresenting the start of a new line when quoting verse,or a new paragraph when quoting prose.The Chicago Manual of Stylealso allows spaces when either of the separated items is a compound that itself includes a space: "Our New Zealand / Western Australia trip".(Compareuse of an en dash used to separate such compounds.)The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editingprescribes: "No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols; one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups which contain internal spacing", giving the examples "n/a" and "Language and Society /Langue et société".

According toThe Chicago Manual of Style,when typesetting a URL or computer path, line breaks should occur before a slash but not in the text between two slashes.

Encoding

Though the slash is areserved characterprohibited in Windows file and folder names, thebig solidusis permitted (first box above). In this context, it is very similar to the slash (second box).

As a very common character, the slash (as "slant" ) was originally encoded inASCIIwith the decimal code 47 or0x2F.The same value was used inUnicode,which calls it "solidus" and also adds some more characters:

• U+002F/SOLIDUS
• U+0337̷COMBINING SHORT SOLIDUS OVERLAY(forstrikethrough)
• U+0338̸COMBINING LONG SOLIDUS OVERLAY(forstrikethrough)
• U+2044⁄FRACTION SLASH
• U+2215∕DIVISION SLASH
• U+2571╱BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DIAGONAL UPPER RIGHT TO LOWER LEFT
• U+29F8⧸BIG SOLIDUS
• U+FF0F／FULLWIDTH SOLIDUS(fullwidthversion of solidus)
• U+1F67C🙼VERY HEAVY SOLIDUS

In XML and HTML, the slash can also be represented with thecharacter entity/or thenumeric character reference/or/.

Alternative names

Name	Used for
diagonal	An uncommon name for the slash in all its uses,
division slash	This is the Unicode Consortium's formal name for the variant of the slash used to markdivision.(U+2215∕DIVISION SLASH)
forward slash	Aretronymused to distinguish slash from a backslash following the popularization of MS-DOS and other Microsoft operating systems, which use the backslash for paths in its file system.Less oftenforward stroke(UK),foreslash,front slash,andfrontslash.It is not unknown even to see suchback-formationsasreverse backslash.
fractionslash	This is the Unicode Consortium's formal name for the low slash used to mark fractions.(U+2044⁄FRACTION SLASH) Also sometimes known as thefraction bar,although this more commonly refers to the horizontal bar style, as in⁠1/2⁠.When used as a fraction bar, this form of the mark is less vertical than an ASCII slash, generally close to 45° andkernedon both sides;this use is distinguished by Unicode as the fraction slash.(This use is sometimes mistakenly described as thesolemeaning of "solidus", with its use as a shilling mark and slash distinguished under the name "virgule".)
oblique	A formerly common name for the slash in all its uses.Alsooblique stroke,oblique dash,etc.
scratch comma	A modern name for the virgule's historic use as a form of comma.
separatrix	Originally, thevertical lineseparating integers from decimals before the advent of thedecimal point;later used for the vertical bar or slash used inproofreader's marginalia to denote the intended replacement for a letter or wordstruckthroughin proofed textor to separate margin notes.Sometimes misapplied to virgules.
shillingmark	A development of thelong Sſused as an abbreviation for the (obsolete)British shilling(Latin:solidus),and also for some modern-day currencies (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia), where it sometimes takes the place of a decimal point. The 'slash' is known as a "shilling stroke".
slant	From its shape, an infrequent name except (asslants) in its use to mark pronunciations off from other textand as the originalASCIIname of the character.Alsoslant line(s)orbar(s).
slash mark	An alternative name used to distinguish the punctuation mark from the word's other senses.
slat	An uncommon name for the slash used by theesoteric programming languageINTERCAL.Alsoslak.
solidus	Another name for the mark (derived from the Latin form of 'shilling'), also applied to other slashes separating numbers or letters,used in typography,and adopted by theISOandUnicodeas their formal name for the ASCII slash ( "slant" ). (U+002F/SOLIDUS) The solidus's use as a division sign is distinguished as the division slash.
stroke	A contraction of the phraseoblique stroke,used intelegraphy.It is particularly employed in reading the mark out loud: "he stroke she" is a common British reading of "he/she". "Slash" has, however, become common in Britain in computing contexts, while some North Americanamateur radioenthusiasts employ the British "stroke". Less frequently, "stroke" is also used to refer to hyphens.
virgule	A development ofvirgula( "twig" ),the original medieval Latin name of the character when it was used as a scratch comma and caesura mark.Now primarily used as the name of the slash when it is used to mark line breaks in quotations.Sometimes mistakenly distinguished as a formal name for the slash, as against the solidus's supposed use as a fraction slash.Formerly sometimesanglicizedin British sources as thevirgil.

The slash may also be read out asand,or,and/or,to,orcumin some compounds separated by a slash;overorout ofin fractions, division, andnumbering;andperora(n)in derived units (as km/h) and prices (as $~/kg), where the division slash stands for "each".

See also

• Strikethrough,including slashes through figures
• Feynman slash notationin physics, which employs slash-like strikethroughs
• Inequality sign,an equals sign with a slash-like strikethrough