Degree (temperature)

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This article describes "degree" as a unit of temperature. For alternative meanings, see Degree.

The term degree is used in several scales of temperature. The symbol ° is usually used, followed by the initial letter of the unit, for example °C for degree(s) Celsius. (For temperature differences, the usage is sometimes reversed; then 100 C°, or "100 Celsius degrees", is a temperature difference, while 100 °C, or "100 degrees Celsius", is an actual temperature.) Scales of temperature include:

degree Celsius (°C)
degree Delisle (°De)
degree Fahrenheit (°F)
degree Newton (°N)
degree Rankine (°R or °Ra)
degree Réaumur (°R)
degree Rømer(°Rø)

The degree Kelvin (°K) is a former name for the SI unit of temperature on the thermodynamic (absolute) temperature scale. Since 1967 it has been known simply as the kelvin, with symbol K.

Degree symbol

In Unicode, the "degree sign" is U+00B0 (°). The HTML character entity reference for it is °. The Alt+ Code is Alt+0176.

Due to a similar appearance in some fonts in print and on computer screens, some other characters may be mistakenly substituted for it: the "masculine ordinal indicator" (U+00BA, º), the "ring above" (U+02DA, ˚), "superscript zero" (U+2070, ⁰), superscript zero proper (⁰) or superscript letter "o" (^o), and the "ring operator" (U+2218, ∘).

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