Negative value → minus sign
If “plus” would work in the same slot, you need the operator’s sibling.
The balance was -250.
The balance was −250.
Copy & paste · Character reference
The minus sign (−): the real one, not the hyphen
Copy the true minus sign (U+2212) in one click, learn why the hyphen on your keyboard will not do, and see where each one belongs.
Or select it by hand
Click the box to select the character, then press Ctrl + C (⌘ + C on Mac).
- Character
- Minus Sign
- Unicode
- U+2212
- HTML entity
- −
- Plain-text fallback
- -
En Dash family
The middle-length dashes – for ranges, scores and connections.
The minus sign (−, U+2212) is the mathematical character for subtraction and negative values. It is a different glyph from the hyphen, and deliberately so: the minus is drawn to match the width and alignment of the plus sign and the equals sign, so that in an equation the operators line up in a tidy vertical column. The hyphen on your keyboard — U+002D, the same key — is a spelling device that happens to look like a short line. Substituting one for the other is the single most common typographic error in numeric text.
The practical consequence is stylistic before it is technical. In a table of figures, a hyphen used as a negative sign makes the numbers look ragged, because the hyphen is narrower and sits at a different height than the plus sign next to it. In a printed equation, −5 versus -5 is the difference between a typeset sum and a typewriter approximation. Screen readers and text-to-speech engines are the other reason: some of them announce U+2212 as “minus” and U+002D as “hyphen” or say nothing at all, so the character choice changes how a balance is read aloud. Where the glyph is not available at all — plain-text systems, some fonts, older mobile keyboards — the hyphen remains the safe fallback.
How you produce it depends on where you are. In Word, typing a hyphen inside the equation editor converts it automatically, and Alt + 8722 works in any Windows application. In Excel the situation is messier: a typed hyphen is stored as text or as part of a number and is never converted, so a column of negatives mixes real numbers with look-alike text unless you type the true minus or clean the data. In LaTeX, maths mode’s $-$ produces the correct glyph every time. And this site’s dash tools leave the minus sign alone by design — it is listed in the dash symbols reference, but no remover here touches it, because deleting a minus changes the value of a number.
How to type a minus sign
Keyboard shortcuts for every platform — or skip the typing and copy the character above.
| Platform | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Windows (any app) | Alt + 8722 on the numeric keypad |
| Windows (reliable route) | charmap.exe → search U+2212 or “minus sign” |
| Mac | No default shortcut — copy it above, or Emoji & Symbols (⌃⌘Space) |
| Google Docs | Insert → Special characters → search “minus sign” |
| Word (equation) | Type - inside an equation and Word converts it to the minus |
| Excel | =CHAR(8722) or Alt + 8722 · a typed hyphen stays a hyphen |
| LaTeX | $-$ in maths mode gives the minus sign |
| HTML / CSS | − or − · content: "\2212" |
Minus Sign examples
What the character looks like doing its job — and what changes if you swap in a different dash.
A negative number
The account closed at −1,204.55.
A temperature
A low of −5 °C overnight.
Subtraction in running text
Revenue minus costs: 40 − 12 = 28.
A tolerance or error bar
Measured 12.4 ± −0.3 mm.
A financial loss in a table
Q3 −2.4% | Q4 +0.8%
Minus, hyphen, en dash: which one goes here?
The rule is about meaning, not shape. Read each example as if the mark were a word.
A range → en dash or hyphen
Reads as “to”, so in print it is an en dash; in data, a plain hyphen.
pages 44−48
pages 44–48 · 44-48
A compound word → hyphen
Joining words is the hyphen’s only job; neither the minus nor the en dash does it.
well−known
well-known
A phone number → hyphen
Not arithmetic, so not the minus — and a non-breaking hyphen keeps it on one line.
555−0134
555-0134
When a character’s identity is genuinely unclear — three look-alikes, one screen — paste the line into thedash identifierand it will name every dash-like character in the text, code point included.
Em dash vs en dash vs hyphen
Three characters that look like each other and never behave the same way. Copy the one you need, or read the full reference for each.
Questions
What is the difference between a minus sign and a hyphen?
The minus sign (−, U+2212) is a mathematical operator: it is aligned with the plus sign and used for subtraction and negative numbers. The hyphen (-, U+002D) is a spelling device that joins compounds such as well-known. They share a keyboard key but are different characters, with different widths and different voices in a screen reader.
How do I type a minus sign?
On Windows, Alt + 8722 on the numeric keypad. On macOS there is no default shortcut, so copy the character above or insert it from Emoji & Symbols. In Word’s equation editor a typed hyphen converts automatically; in LaTeX, $-$ in maths mode gives the correct glyph.
Why does my spreadsheet show the wrong minus sign?
Because a typed hyphen stays a hyphen: neither Excel nor Google Sheets converts it to U+2212, and a cell may end up holding a number, a hyphen character or text that merely looks numeric. That is a frequent cause of values that will not sum or sort. Type the true minus, or clean the column before importing.
Should I use a minus sign or an en dash for negative numbers?
The minus sign. The en dash (–) marks ranges, so −5 °C and –5 °C are different characters with different meanings; the first is a temperature, the second is a typographic range mark pressed into service. For negatives, always the minus.
Will a dash remover delete my minus signs?
Not on this site. The engine’s hyphen family covers U+002D, U+2010, U+2011 and the soft hyphen, and the en dash family covers U+2013 and U+2012 — U+2212 is deliberately excluded, because removing a minus sign changes what the number means. It is still listed in the dash symbols reference so you can identify it.
Can I write a minus sign as an HTML entity?
Yes: − or the numeric −. Both are safe in HTML and render as U+2212; using the plain hyphen character instead produces the narrower glyph and the wrong semantics for maths content.
Fixing dashed numbers?
Ranges in your data — 2018–2022, pages 44–48 — need a hyphen, not a minus. The replace en dash tool keeps the values readable and ASCII-safe.
Fix ranges with a hyphen