The slashed O is Ø. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0216 on the numeric keypad.
On Mac, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl+Cmd+Space and search for “stroke,” since there’s no built-in Option shortcut. Both give you the same capital letter O with a diagonal stroke through it.
Its official Unicode name is LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE, at code point U+00D8. It’s a single precomposed character, not an O with a separate accent stacked on top, which matters when you copy, search, or save filenames with it. More on that below.
Slashed O quick reference
| Method | Input | Works in |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Alt code | Alt + 0216 (numeric keypad) | Most Windows apps |
| Windows plain code | Alt+0216 (Unicode-aware apps) | Word, Notepad, some editors |
| Mac | Character Viewer (Ctrl+Cmd+Space), search “stroke” | Most Mac apps |
| Word Alt+X | Type 00D8, then press Alt+X | Word, Outlook, OneNote |
| Chromebook / Linux | Ctrl+Shift+U, then 00d8 | ChromeOS, Linux text fields |
| Excel / Sheets formula | =UNICHAR(216) | Excel, Google Sheets |
| HTML (numeric) | Ø or Ø | Web pages |
| CSS escape | \00D8 | Stylesheets, pseudo-content |
| Unicode code point | U+00D8 (decimal 216) | Universal reference |
Ø has no named HTML entity like ° or ©, so use the numeric form. The lowercase version is ø (U+00F8, Alt+0248). Everything below covers the capital, but each method takes the lowercase code the same way.
Type the slashed O on Windows
The Alt code is the fastest route, but it needs a real numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard. The number row across the top does not work for Alt codes.
- Make sure Num Lock is on.
- Hold down the Alt key.
- Type 0216 on the numeric keypad.
- Release Alt. Ø appears.
The leading zero matters. Alt+0216 reads from the modern Windows-1252 table and is the reliable choice.
Alt+0216 (no zero) works only in Unicode-aware apps like Word, and in older programs it reads from the OEM code page, which can differ by region. Stick with the zero-form for documents.
On a laptop with no keypad, the Alt code often fails. Use the emoji panel instead: press Win + . (period), click the omega symbol tab, and search “stroke.
” Or open Character Map (search “charmap”), find Ø, and copy it. Our on-screen accent keyboard is quicker if you type these letters often.
Type the slashed O on Mac
Mac has no Alt codes, and there’s no single Option shortcut mapped to Ø on the standard US layout. The dependable method is the Character Viewer.
- Press Ctrl + Cmd + Space to open the Character Viewer.
- Type “stroke” or “O with stroke” in the search box.
- Double-click Ø to insert it at your cursor.
If you type Scandinavian text regularly, switch to a Norwegian or Danish keyboard layout in System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources. On those layouts Ø sits on a dedicated key, so you get it with one press.
Type the slashed O in Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
Word has its own hex trick that works nowhere else in the same way. Type the code point, then convert it.
- Type 00D8 where you want the letter.
- Press Alt + X. The 00D8 turns into Ø.
This takes the hexadecimal value, not a decimal one, so don’t confuse it with the Alt+0216 keypad code. The same Alt+X trick works in Outlook and OneNote. The Windows Alt+0216 keypad method also works in all of these.
Prefer menus? Go to Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, set the subset to Latin-1 Supplement, and pick Ø. The identical Insert → Symbol route works in PowerPoint, which has no Alt+X shortcut of its own, so use the menu or the Windows Alt code there.
Type the slashed O in Excel and Google Sheets
In Excel, the cleanest way is a formula: type =UNICHAR(216) and press Enter. To keep the letter as fixed text rather than a live formula, copy the cell and Paste Special → Values. The Insert → Symbol menu also works in Excel.
Google Sheets has no Insert Symbol menu at all. Use the same formula, =UNICHAR(216), or paste the character in. If you want to type an OS-level input method directly into a cell, press F2 first to enter edit mode, otherwise the keystrokes may not register.
Type the slashed O in Google Docs
Google Docs has a search-and-draw picker that makes this easy.
- Open Insert → Special characters.
- Type “stroke” in the search field, or draw the shape in the sketch box.
- Click Ø to drop it into your document.
For repeated use, set up a substitution under Tools → Preferences: map a short trigger like (/o) to Ø and Docs will swap it automatically as you type.
Type the slashed O on iPhone and Android
Both phones hide accented letters behind a long-press. Press and hold the O key on the keyboard, and a small row of variants pops up above your finger. Slide to Ø and release.
If Ø isn’t in the pop-up on your layout, add a Norwegian, Danish, or Faroese keyboard in your phone’s language settings, or copy the character from this page and use the text-replacement feature (iPhone: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement; Android: Settings → System → Languages → Personal dictionary) so a shortcut like “sso” expands to Ø.
Type the slashed O on Chromebook
ChromeOS has no Alt codes, and a USB numpad won’t add them, because Alt codes are Windows software. Use the Unicode shortcut instead.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + U. A small underlined u appears.
- Type 00d8 (the hex value, no U+ prefix).
- Press Enter or Space. Ø appears.
Some web forms grab this shortcut before ChromeOS sees it. If nothing happens, use the built-in emoji and symbol picker at Launcher + Shift + Space, or just copy Ø from the button at the top of this page.
Type the slashed O in Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
None of these apps has a dedicated shortcut for Ø. The reliable answer is to paste it, then make it permanent if you use it a lot.
- Notion, Slack, Discord: paste Ø directly. In Slack, add it to a text snippet or use your OS text-replacement so a trigger expands to the letter. Notion respects OS-level replacements too.
- Canva: click into a text box and paste. Canva has no symbol menu, so paste or the on-screen input method is your only route. Check the font renders it before you finalize the design.
Type the slashed O in HTML and CSS
There is no named entity for this letter, so use a numeric reference: Ø (decimal) or Ø (hex). Both render Ø.
In CSS generated content, escape it as \00D8, for example content: "\00D8";. In modern UTF-8 pages you can also just paste the raw character into your markup, as long as the file is saved as UTF-8.
Precomposed Ø vs an O with a combining stroke
Ø at U+00D8 is a single precomposed character. But you can also build a visually identical letter by writing a plain O followed by a combining long stroke overlay (U+0338). On screen they can look the same, yet they are different underlying data.
This matters in real work. A search for “Ø” using the precomposed form won’t match text built from the combining sequence. Filenames, usernames, and form fields can reject or mangle the two-code-point version, and a copy from one system may not equal a paste into another even though they look identical.
The fix is Unicode normalization. Converting text to NFC form collapses the combining sequence into the single U+00D8 character, so comparisons and searches line up. When you type Ø with the methods above, you already get the clean precomposed character, which is what you want almost every time.
Troubleshooting the slashed O
Alt+0216 does nothing. Check Num Lock is on and that you’re using the numeric keypad, not the top number row.
On laptops without a keypad, the code won’t fire at all; use Win+. or copy the letter.
You get Ø when you wanted ø, or vice versa. The lowercase is a separate character: Alt+0248, or type 00F8 then Alt+X in Word. They aren’t case-swappable by the Shift key in the same way normal letters are inside a symbol picker.
The letter shows as a box (□) or a question mark. The current font lacks the glyph, or the file isn’t saved as UTF-8.
Ø is present in Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Segoe UI, and most common fonts, so switch to one of those. If the box only appears after saving, the encoding is the culprit.
People confuse Ø with the empty-set symbol ∅. They look alike but differ. ∅ is U+2205, a mathematical sign, and it’s usually drawn thinner with a perfectly round bowl.
Ø is a letter. The digit zero with a slash (a font stylistic choice, not a separate character) is a third look-alike, common in coding fonts.
Where the slashed O is used
Ø is a standard letter in the Danish, Norwegian, and Faroese alphabets, where it counts as its own letter rather than a modified O. You’ll see it in place names and personal names such as Ørsted and Søren.
Outside those languages it turns up as a diameter mark on engineering drawings, as a phonetic symbol, and in mathematics and science notation where a slashed circle marks a specific quantity.
Related letters and symbols
These come up alongside Ø and are easy to mix up:
- OE ligature (Œ) — two letters fused into one, used in French, not a slashed vowel.
- Enye (Ñ) — the Spanish N with a tilde, another letter treated as distinct in its alphabet.
- Eszett (ß) — the German sharp S, another single character with no simple Alt shortcut on some layouts.
- Diaeresis vs umlaut, clears up the two-dot mark that looks the same but means different things.
Related guides and resources
For the full method set across every accented character, read the complete guide to typing accented letters. You can also browse every accented-letter guide or use the on-screen accent keyboard to click these letters straight into any field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ø the same as the zero with a slash?
No. The slashed zero is a stylistic version of the digit 0 used in some fonts to distinguish it from the letter O. Ø is a distinct letter with its own code point, U+00D8. They are not interchangeable in text.
Why does my Ø sort in a strange place alphabetically?
In Danish and Norwegian, Ø is its own letter placed near the end of the alphabet, after Z. Sorting software using those locale rules will put it there rather than treating it as an O. Change the sort locale if you want it grouped with O.
Can I type Ø with just Option keys on a Mac?
Not on the standard US layout, which has no Option combination mapped to it. Either use the Character Viewer or switch to a Nordic keyboard layout, where Ø gets a dedicated key.
Why does Ø break when I put it in a filename or URL?
Some systems store the letter as a combining sequence rather than the single precomposed character, and older systems strip non-ASCII bytes. Normalizing your text to NFC form and using UTF-8 usually fixes it, but a few file systems and web services still refuse non-ASCII letters entirely.
What’s the lowercase code for ø?
Lowercase ø is U+00F8. On Windows use Alt+0248, in Word type 00F8 then Alt+X, on Chromebook press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00f8, and in a spreadsheet use =UNICHAR(248).
Does Ø show up as an emoji on my phone?
No. Ø is a plain text letter with no emoji presentation, so it looks the same monochrome character on phone and desktop. If it appears as a box on one device, that’s a missing font, not an emoji difference.
Why didn’t Alt+0216 give me the same result as Alt+0216?
The zero-less code reads from your machine’s OEM code page in older programs, which varies by region, so it can produce a different character. Alt+0216 reads from the consistent Windows-1252 table. Use the zero form for reliable results.