Degree (temperature)

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The term degree is used in several scales of temperature. The symbol ° is usually used, followed by the initial letter(s) of the unit, for example “°C” for degree(s) Celsius.

The most common scales of temperature are:

• Celsius (°C)
• Kelvin (K), which uses the Celsius scale, adjusted so that 0 kelvin is equal to absolute zero.
• Fahrenheit (°F)
• Rankine (°R or °Ra), which uses the Fahrenheit scale, adjusted so that 0 rankine is equal to absolute zero.

Other scales of temperature include:

• Delisle (°De)
• Newton (°N)
• Réaumur (°R)
• 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 Since 1967 it has been known simply as the kelvin, with symbol K. Degree absolute (°A) is obsolete terminology, often referring specifically to the kelvin but sometimes the degree Rankine as well.

Degree symbol

In Unicode, the "degree sign" is U+00B0 (°). The HTML character entity reference for it is °. The Alt codes on Microsoft Windows are Alt+0176 (Unicode) and Alt+248 (ANSI).

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, ∘).