Commercial minus sign

{{Short description|Northern European form of minus sign}}

{{Redirect-distinguish|⁒|⸓|٪|%}}

{{Infobox symbol

|mark=⁒

|name=Commercial minus sign

|unicode = {{unichar|2052|Commercial minus sign|html=}}

|different from = {{unichar|0025|Percent sign|nlink=}}
{{unichar|F7|Division sign|nlink= }}
{{unichar|066A|Arabic percent sign|nlink=}}

}}

The commercial minus sign is a typographical and mathematical symbol used in commercial and financial documents in some European languages, in specific contexts.

In some commercial and financial documents, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, the symbol {{char|÷}} was used to indicate subtraction or to denote a negative quantity.{{cite book|title= Kaufmännische Arithmetik | author= Johann Philipp Schellenberg | page = 213| lang=DE | date=1825}}{{efn|1=The symbol {{char|:}} was used to denote division, as in 6:3=2.{{cite web |title=Too narrowly defined: DIVISION SIGN & COLON |url=http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2012-m07/0053.html | author = Leif Halvard Silli | website= Unicode.org}} Use of the symbol {{char|÷}} for division is specific to Anglophone countries. The ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus {{char|/}} or "fraction bar" for division, or the "colon" {{char|:}} for ratios; it says that the {{char|÷}} sign "should not be used" for division.ISO 80000-2, Section 9 "Operations", 2-9.6 }} The Unicode Consortium has allocated the code point U+2052 to identify this usage uniquely,{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2014-m01/0018.html | title= Commercial minus as italic variant of division sign in German and Scandinavian context | author = Leif Halvard Silli | website= Unicode.org}} the exact form of the symbol displayed is typeface (font) dependent. The symbol is also used in the margins of letters to indicate an enclosure, where the upper point is sometimes replaced with the corresponding number.{{Cite book|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode10.0.0/ch06.pdf#G7935|title=The Unicode® Standard, Version 10.0|publisher=The Unicode Consortium|year=2017|isbn=978-1-936213-16-0|location=Mountain View, CA|chapter=Writing Systems and Punctuation}}

The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses commercial minus signs to denote borrowed forms of a sound.

In Finland, it is used as a symbol for a correct response (the check mark indicates an incorrect response).