# The pilcrow (¶): the paragraph symbol's meaning and history

**What is the pilcrow (¶), where did the paragraph symbol come from, and how is it used today?** The pilcrow (¶) is the paragraph mark. It grew from the Greek paragraphos, a stroke in the margin, and the medieval C for capitulum, which gained a vertical stroke and a filled bowl. The word, a worn form of paragraph, is recorded in English from 1440. Today it shows paragraph breaks in Word's Show/Hide view and, in some guides, paragraph numbers in citations.

Published 2026-10-02 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/the-pilcrow-and-the-paragraph

The pilcrow (¶) is the paragraph mark, the reversed P that Word scatters through a document when you press Show/Hide. Greek scribes marked paragraphs with a stroke in the margin; the pilcrow itself grew from a C for *capitulum* in medieval books, drawn in red by rubricators, who finished a page after the scribe. Its name is a worn-down "paragraph", recorded in English from 1440.

EdCitation publishes this guide, built from a papyrologist's article, the OED, two national libraries, Unicode, Keith Houston's history of the mark, and Microsoft's, Google's, APA's and MLA's own pages, all read on 2 October 2026. How to build a paragraph is in [writing a strong paragraph](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/writing-a-strong-paragraph-topic-sentences-and-cohesion) and [PEEL and other patterns](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/peel-and-other-paragraph-patterns); this guide is about the mark and the space before it.

EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work, and we say so gladly: every paragraph you hand in is yours. It checks instead. [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) builds the reference for a page with no page numbers, free, and [Mechanics QA](https://edcitation.com/tools/mechanics-qa) checks a finished file's formatting and the slips a spell-checker lets through.

## What is the pilcrow symbol (¶), and what does it mean?

The pilcrow is the sign for a paragraph. Unicode lists it as U+00B6 PILCROW SIGN, gives "paragraph sign" as its other name, and notes that some European usage treats it as a section sign (Unicode Consortium, 2026a). The OED gives the pronunciation as PIL-kroh and finds the word rare: fewer than 0.01 uses per million words of modern written English (Oxford University Press, n.d.).

Editors use the mark to show where one paragraph should become two, and legal documents pair it with the section sign, as in §5, ¶123 (Houston, 2011c). Unicode also encodes the capitulum (U+2E3F), the "ancestor of the pilcrow sign" (Unicode Consortium, 2026b).

### Where does the word pilcrow come from?

From "paragraph", by a long run of alterations. The OED's earliest evidence is from 1440, in the *Promptorium Parvulorum*, and it calls pilcrow "apparently a variant or alteration" of paragraph (Oxford University Press, n.d.).

Skeat (1901) traced the chain through forms such as *pargrafte* and *pylcrafte*, called the two words "mere doublets", and admitted that "not all of these forms are found". Accounts differ on the last step. Skeat put *pilcrafte* becoming *pilcrow* down to "mere laziness"; the Online Etymology Dictionary dates the spelling to the 1570s and suggests the ending was remade after the bird, which an early, solid form of the mark was thought to resemble (Harper, n.d.). Treat both as explanations, not records.

## Where did the paragraph mark come from?

From a stroke in the margin of Greek book rolls. Johnson (1994), a papyrologist, defines the paragraphus (Greek *paragraphos*) as a horizontal stroke below the line at the left margin, and finds it named as a section marker by Isocrates and Aristotle: its use "goes back at least to the classical period". In plays it marks a new speaker; in prose rolls, usually the end of a sentence. The name says where the mark sat: *para*, beside, and *graphein*, to write (Houston, 2011a).

### From K to C: kaput and capitulum

Houston (2011a), drawing on M. B. Parkes's *Pause and Effect*, describes paragraphs marked by the 2nd century AD with the stroke, with enlarged first letters pushed into the margin, or with a K for *kaput*, "head". By the 12th century, C for *capitulum*, "little head", had taken over, and in rubricators' hands it gained a vertical stroke; later its bowl was filled in (Houston, 2011b).

The National Library of Scotland's glossary for the Auchinleck manuscript quotes Parkes (1969) on the shape: a paraph "developed from the letter C" with a vertical stroke, which "largely replaced the paragraphus" to open a paragraph, proposition, stanza or section (National Library of Scotland, n.d.). At first the mark opened chapters; then it divided running text; only later did each paragraph get its own line, with a pilcrow at its head (Houston, 2011b).

### Rubricators and the blank space that became the indent

The rubricator worked after the scribe, so the scribe left room. The National Library of Scotland (n.d.) defines rubrication as "writing or decoration in red ink", and a guide letter as one written to tell the rubricator which initial to supply. Early printers did the same: in incunabula, Japan's National Diet Library (n.d.) explains, the place for a chapter's initial was left blank and a rubricator drew it in later.

Houston (2011c) goes one step further. Pilcrows grew slow to draw; sometimes the rubricator ran out of time and the space stayed white, and the press multiplied the books faster than anyone could fill them. "The pilcrow became a ghost", he writes, and the indent took its place. Smithsonian magazine retold the account (Stamp, 2013).

The story is plausible and widely repeated, but we could not confirm it. Houston cites Andrew Haslam's *Book Design* (2006), which we could not read, and the glossaries we read describe blank spaces for initials, not the birth of the indent. Read it as a typographer's account, not a documented fact.

## How has the paragraph been marked, from papyrus to Word?

By a stroke, a letter, a red sign, a blank space and now an invisible character.

| When | How a new paragraph was marked | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Classical Greece onwards | A stroke at the left margin; a new speaker in plays | Johnson (1994) |
| By the 2nd century AD | The stroke, enlarged first letters, or K for *kaput* | Houston (2011a) |
| By the 12th century | C for *capitulum*, given a stroke and a filled bowl | Houston (2011b); National Library of Scotland (n.d.) |
| 1440 | The word *pylcrafte*, the OED's earliest evidence | Oxford University Press (n.d.); Skeat (1901) |
| Early printed books | Blank spaces for hand-drawn initials | National Diet Library (n.d.) |
| Print, by one account | The unfilled space survives as the indent (unconfirmed) | Houston (2011c); Stamp (2013) |
| Word processors | ¶ on the button that reveals hidden marks | Microsoft (n.d.-b); Houston (2011a) |

## How do I show or hide the pilcrow and formatting marks in Word and Google Docs?

In Word, click Show/Hide or press Ctrl+Shift+8; in Google Docs, choose View, then Show non-printing characters. The marks are for the screen only and never print.

### Microsoft Word

Microsoft (n.d.-b) says the Show/Hide button "turns hidden characters like spaces, paragraph markers, or tab marks on and off", and its shortcut list gives Ctrl+Shift+8, not on the numeric keypad (Microsoft, n.d.-a). To keep some marks on for good, use File > Options > Display on Windows, or Word > Preferences > View on a Mac.

### Google Docs

Google's help page shows the marks in blue: paragraph, line, section, page and column breaks, tabs and spaces (Google, n.d.). It names neither the symbol Docs uses nor a shortcut.

### A five-minute paragraph check with the marks on

1. **Turn the marks on**, as above.
2. **Look at the start of each paragraph.** APA wants a 0.5 in. indent made with the tab key or the paragraph settings: "Do not use the space bar" (American Psychological Association, 2022b). Space marks before the first word mean the space bar.
3. **Look between paragraphs.** A pilcrow alone on a line is an empty paragraph, usually Enter pressed for space; APA says not to add extra space before or after paragraphs (American Psychological Association, 2022a).
4. **Check the exceptions**: an APA abstract's first line is flush left, and references take a hanging indent.
5. **Read your brief's layout rules.** EdCitation's free [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) lists an assignment's font, spacing and margins, each beside the sentence it came from.
6. **Run the last checks**: [Mechanics QA](https://edcitation.com/tools/mechanics-qa) on the file, and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references), free, on the list.

## How do I cite a paragraph number when a source has no page numbers?

In APA 7, write "para." and the number, counting the paragraphs yourself if they are unnumbered. In MLA, write "par." only when the source numbers its paragraphs; otherwise give no number.

### APA: para., counted by hand if need be

APA offers three locators for a quotation without pages: a heading or section name, a paragraph number, or both, counting paragraphs manually if they are not numbered. Its example: (Chamberlin, 2014, para. 1). The locator goes in the text only; the reference is for the whole page (American Psychological Association, 2020b). More cases: [a missing author, date or page](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/apa-7-missing-author-date-or-page).

### MLA: par., only when the source numbers it

The MLA Style Center, answering under the eighth edition, uses "par." and "pars.", as in "(par. 25)" (Modern Language Association, 2018), and quotes the Handbook: "Do not count unnumbered paragraphs or other parts" (Modern Language Association, 2019). Both answers point readers to the ninth edition, which we did not read. Asked about a professor who wanted counted paragraphs, the MLA said adapting its style that way works, and suggested confirming it with the professor (Modern Language Association, 2021).

| Style or guide | Label | Unnumbered paragraphs | Example | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| APA 7 | para. | Count them yourself | (Chamberlin, 2014, para. 1) | American Psychological Association (2020b) |
| MLA | par., pars. | Give no number | (par. 25) | Modern Language Association (2018) |
| ASU Library, APA pages | ¶ or para. | Numbered paragraphs only | (Smith, 2009, ¶ 3) | Arizona State University Library (n.d.) |
| Any of six styles | The reference itself | Built from the page by [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite), free | Below | This guide's run |

APA's own page writes "para.", never ¶: use the symbol only if your guide does.

### A worked example: one web page with no page numbers

On 2 October 2026 we gave the address of Houston's third pilcrow post to EdCitation's [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa). It returned, in APA 7:

Houston, K. (2011). *The Pilcrow, part 3 of 3*. Shady Characters. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-3/

A second run returned the same. The page shows March 20, 2011, but only the year was read, and in sentence case pilcrow takes a small p. Cite a source shows what it read so it can be corrected; with both fixed it returned:

Houston, K. (2011, March 20). *The pilcrow, part 3 of 3*. Shady Characters. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-3/

That is APA's web-page form. A blog post takes the journal-article form, with the blog's name in italics and the title plain (American Psychological Association, 2020a), so the final entry is:

Houston, K. (2011, March 20). The pilcrow, part 3 of 3. *Shady Characters*. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-3/

The ghost sentence is in the post's first paragraph, not counting the series note above it: "The pilcrow became a ghost" (Houston, 2011, para. 1). In [MLA 9](https://edcitation.com/cite/mla) the run gave "(Houston)", which is right, since the post does not number its paragraphs. Our list calls it Houston (2011c), one of his three 2011 posts.

## How does EdCitation help with paragraphs and paragraph numbers?

By checking, never by writing. For the reference behind a paragraph-number citation, Cite a source is, in our view, the best tool for the job: it reads the page itself and shows what it found before building the entry, which is how the year-only date above was seen and fixed, not guessed. It looks a reference up and never writes one, a lookup no chatbot can make for you. It is free, with no account, in six styles.

### Mechanics QA, for the finished file

[Mechanics QA](https://edcitation.com/tools/mechanics-qa) gives a paper the first read a marker gives it, done by rule. It checks font, size, spacing, margins, title page, headings and the reference list against the APA 7 student paper; finds comments, tracked changes, placeholders and template text left in the file; matches citations to the list and looks each reference up; and flags figures that disagree between sections and the slips a spell-checker lets through. No model reads your paper, and each finding is marked where it sits, with its fix. Indents and pilcrows are not on its published list, so the five-minute check above stays yours. It is part of Pro, $8 a month or $72 a year, and a free account can run three checks a month ([pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing)).

### Find sources, for the scholarship

[Find sources](https://edcitation.com/), free, searches about 300 million published works. Asked for "function of the paragraphus", it returned 82 results, with Deborah Anderson and Michael Everson's 2016 proposal to encode the paragraphus mark in Unicode second; the chart now lists U+2E4D PARAGRAPHUS MARK (Unicode Consortium, 2026b). More marks: [the em dash](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/a-history-of-the-em-dash) and [the apostrophe](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/the-apostrophe-and-its-defenders).

## Quick questions

### What is the pilcrow symbol called?

The pilcrow, also called the paragraph mark or paragraph sign: U+00B6 PILCROW SIGN in Unicode.

### Why does the paragraph symbol look like a backwards P?

It began as a C for *capitulum*; rubricators added a vertical stroke, and later the bowl was filled in (Houston, 2011b).

### How do I get rid of the paragraph symbols in Word?

Click Show/Hide or press Ctrl+Shift+8; marks that stay are ticked under File > Options > Display.

### How do I cite a paragraph number in APA?

Give the author, the year and "para." with the number, as in (Chamberlin, 2014, para. 1), counting unnumbered paragraphs yourself. MLA does not count them.

### Can EdCitation fix the paragraphs in my paper?

No. EdCitation never writes or rewrites your work. [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite), free, builds the reference you add a paragraph number to, and [Mechanics QA](https://edcitation.com/tools/mechanics-qa), in Pro, checks the file's formatting and language slips.

## References

- American Psychological Association. (2020a). *Blog post and blog comment references*. APA Style. [https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/blog-post-references](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/blog-post-references)
- American Psychological Association. (2020b). *Direct quotation of material without page numbers*. APA Style. [https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations/no-page-numbers](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations/no-page-numbers)
- American Psychological Association. (2022a). *Line spacing*. APA Style. [https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/line-spacing](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/line-spacing)
- American Psychological Association. (2022b). *Paragraph alignment and indentation*. APA Style. [https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/paragraph-format](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/paragraph-format)
- Arizona State University Library. (n.d.). *In-text citations: Basics*. Citation styles. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://libguides.asu.edu/citing/apaintext](https://libguides.asu.edu/citing/apaintext)
- Google. (n.d.). *View document outlines, rulers, & non-printing characters*. Google Docs Editors Help. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6367684](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6367684)
- Harper, D. (n.d.). *Pilcrow*. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://www.etymonline.com/word/pilcrow](https://www.etymonline.com/word/pilcrow)
- Houston, K. (2011a, February 20). The pilcrow, part 1 of 3. *Shady Characters*. [https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/02/the-pilcrow-part-1/](https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/02/the-pilcrow-part-1/)
- Houston, K. (2011b, March 6). The pilcrow, part 2 of 3. *Shady Characters*. [https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-2/](https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-2/)
- Houston, K. (2011c, March 20). The pilcrow, part 3 of 3. *Shady Characters*. [https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-3/](https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/03/the-pilcrow-part-3/)
- Johnson, W. A. (1994). The function of the paragraphus in Greek literary prose texts. *Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 100*, 65–68. [https://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1994/100pdf/100065.pdf](https://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1994/100pdf/100065.pdf)
- Microsoft. (n.d.-a). *Keyboard shortcuts in Word*. Microsoft Support. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-word-95ef89dd-7142-4b50-afb2-f762f663ceb2](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-word-95ef89dd-7142-4b50-afb2-f762f663ceb2)
- Microsoft. (n.d.-b). *Show or hide tab marks in Word*. Microsoft Support. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/show-or-hide-tab-marks-in-word-84a53213-5d02-404a-b022-09cae1a3958b](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/show-or-hide-tab-marks-in-word-84a53213-5d02-404a-b022-09cae1a3958b)
- Modern Language Association. (2018, May 3). *How should I cite an e-book version of Shakespeare's Hamlet that uses paragraph numbers instead of line numbers?* MLA Style Center. [https://style.mla.org/paragraph-numbers-in-shakespeare/](https://style.mla.org/paragraph-numbers-in-shakespeare/)
- Modern Language Association. (2019, February 28). *If I am citing a manuscript that displays page numbers on some pages but not on others, how do I handle my in-text citations?* MLA Style Center. [https://style.mla.org/manuscript-page-numbers/](https://style.mla.org/manuscript-page-numbers/)
- Modern Language Association. (2021, April 1). *In-text citations: An overview*. MLA Style Center. [https://style.mla.org/in-text-citations-overview/](https://style.mla.org/in-text-citations-overview/)
- National Diet Library. (n.d.). *Glossary*. Incunabula. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://www.ndl.go.jp/incunabula/e/glossary/index.html](https://www.ndl.go.jp/incunabula/e/glossary/index.html)
- National Library of Scotland. (n.d.). *Glossary of technical terms*. The Auchinleck manuscript. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://auchinleck.nls.uk/editorial/glossary-nav.html](https://auchinleck.nls.uk/editorial/glossary-nav.html)
- Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Pilcrow, n. In *Oxford English dictionary*. Retrieved 2 October 2026, from [https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pilcrow_n](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pilcrow_n)
- Skeat, W. W. (1901). *Notes on English etymology: Chiefly reprinted from the Transactions of the Philological Society*. Clarendon Press. [https://archive.org/details/notesonenglishet00skeauoft](https://archive.org/details/notesonenglishet00skeauoft)
- Stamp, J. (2013, July 10). The origin of the pilcrow, aka the strange paragraph symbol. *Smithsonian Magazine*. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-origin-of-the-pilcrow-aka-the-strange-paragraph-symbol-8610683/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-origin-of-the-pilcrow-aka-the-strange-paragraph-symbol-8610683/)
- Unicode Consortium. (2026a). *C1 controls and Latin-1 supplement: Range 0080–00FF* [Code chart]. The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0. [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf)
- Unicode Consortium. (2026b). *Supplemental punctuation: Range 2E00–2E7F* [Code chart]. The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0. [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2E00.pdf](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2E00.pdf)