Home > Degree (temperature)

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 degrees Celsius.

• degrees Celsius (° C)
• degrees Fahrenheit (° F)
• degrees Rankine
• degrees Réaumur

Note that the metric unit of temperature, the kelvin, uses the symbol K (always capitalized) and is not preceded by "degrees" nor the degree sign (°).

For comparison, at sea level pure water freezes at 0° C, 32° F or 273.15 K. Similarly at sea level pure water boils at 100° C, 212° F or 373.15 K.

For temperature differences, the usage is reversed: 100 C° (read "Celsius degrees") is a temperature difference, while 100° C is an actual temperature. Hence the difference between the boiling and freezing points of water is 100 C° or 180 F°.

Degree symbol

In Unicode, the "degree sign" is U+00B0 (°). The HTML code for it is °.

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, ∘).