·

Use as a multiplication or product operator is usually attributed to German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. On 29 July 1698, he wrote in a letter to Johann Bernoulli (translated by Florian Cajori):^[1]

I do not like × as a symbol for multiplication, as it is easily confounded with x; […] often I simply relate two quantities by an interposed dot and indicate multiplication by ZC · LM. Hence, in designating ratio I use not one point but two points, which I use at the same time for division.

·

1. (mathematics) The product operator.

   Synonyms: ×, *

   Antonyms: ÷, /

   7 · 8 = 56

2. (in a few countries, such as the UK) A decimal point.

   3·14, £1,234·99

3. (mathematics, vectors) The dot product operator.

   (1,2,5) · (3,4,−1) = 6

4. (mathematics) Indicates what elements can vary.

   If we have f(x,y) we can analyze the properties of f(·,y) which is a function of x found by fixing a particular y.

5. (chemistry) Indicates addition compounds.

   BF₃·NH₃

6. (music) A pointing mark in Anglican chant, which indicates nonstandard places in the text where the chant should change note.

   Coordinate terms: |, ', :, *, —, ‖, †

7. See ・ for the middle dot used in Japanese katakana.
8. See ‧ for the hyphenation point.

• (decimal point): Many Britons employ the American decimal point ⟨.⟩ owing to a general lack of support for the middot character on computers. It remains common in writing done by hand.
• (addition compound): The IUPAC Recommendations for Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry^[2] state: “Centre dots in formulae of (formal) addition compounds, including hydrates, adducts, clathrates, double salts and double oxides, separate the individual constituents. The dot is written in the centre of the line to distinguish it from a full stop (period).”

• (decimal point): ., ,

Punctuation

·

1. (Shavian) the 'namer dot' that optionally precedes proper names to mark them as such.

·

1. The raised point, used like a semicolon.

• (Greek-script letters) Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω
• (non-Classical letters) Ϝ (W) ϝ (w), Ͷ ͷ, Ͱ (H) ͱ (h), Ϻ (S) ϻ (s), Ϟ ϟ, Ϙ (Q) ϙ (q), Ͳ (S) ͳ (s)
• (punctuation) · ;
• (diacritics) ᾿ ῾ ◌́ ◌̀ ῀ ¨

· (·)

1. middot, middle dot (called punt volat (“flown dot”) in Catalan, and found in the combination l·l to distinguish it from the digraph ll. It was once used for elision, especially in poetry.)

• In modern orthography, the middot is only used in the sequence l·l. Unicode has the dedicated characters ŀ and Ŀ.
• In text messages or emails it is sometimes wrongly replaced with a full stop, ⟨.⟩.

·

1. Separates first and last names in personal names transcribed into Chinese characters.

   巴拉克·奧巴馬／巴拉克·奥巴马  ―  Bālākè Àobāmǎ  ―  Barack Obama

2. Separates the title of a literary work or collection from the title of a section.

   《論語·子張》 [MSC, trad.]
   《论语·子张》 [MSC, simp.]

   “Lúnyǔ Zǐzhāng” [Pinyin]

   Analects, "Zizhang"

   《青少年文庫·傲慢與偏見》 [MSC, trad.]
   《青少年文库·傲慢与偏见》 [MSC, simp.]

   “Qīngshàonián Wénkù Àomàn yǔ Piānjiàn” [Pinyin]

   Teenage Book Collection: Pride and Prejudice

3. Separates the name of a fixed melody or format from the title of a poem or song.

   《水調歌頭·明月幾時有》 [MSC, trad.]
   《水调歌头·明月几时有》 [MSC, simp.]

   “Shuǐdiào Gētóu Míngyuè Jǐshí Yǒu” [Pinyin]

   "Mid-Autumn Festival Night" to the tune of "Shuidiao Getou"

4. Separates items in a list in titles.

   《天·地·人》  ―  “Tiān Dì Rén”  ―  Heaven, Earth, Man

5. Separates the month from the day in events, commemorations, etc. named after dates, only used after January (一 (yī)), November (一一 (yīyī)) and December (一二 (yī'èr)) when hanzi are used.

   一·二八事變／一·二八事变  ―  yī-èrbā shìbiàn  ―  January 28 Incident

   9·11襲擊事件／9·11袭击事件  ―  9-11 xíjī shìjiàn  ―  9/11 attacks

   九一八事變／九一八事变  ―  jiǔ-yībā shìbiàn  ―  Mukden Incident (lit. September 18 Incident)

• Rarely used in general. Is used similarly to the Japanese symbol ・.

·

1. (neologism, often proscribed) Used in certain forms of gender-neutral writing either before or around the feminine suffix, to avoid both the use of the masculine as the default form and the verbosity of writing out both the masculine and feminine forms.

   étudiant·es ― étudiantes et étudiants ― female students and male students

   étudiant·e·s ― étudiantes et étudiants ― female students and male students

• Another way to write such forms in gender-neutral writing is to give both the masculine and feminine forms connected by et, the form that goes first being determined by alphabetical order.
• French-language authorities, such as the Académie française, usually strongly proscribe the practice.

·

1. the raka

·

1. (grammar) raised point (άνω τελεία (áno teleía)) or Greek semicolon ( ; ))

• · can be uniquely represented by the Unicode character U+0387 GREEK ANO TELEIA.
• In many places, including on Wiktionary, U+0387 is automatically converted to · (U+00B7 MIDDLE DOT). This is because U+0387 is converted to U+00B7 by all Unicode normalizations.
• In some fonts, · (U+0387) is positioned higher than (U+00B7), similarly to the top point of a colon (:) or semicolon (;).

• Appendix:Greek punctuation

·

1. alternative form of ⸱, the word divider
2. (numismatics) alternative form of 𐆑, the uncia, found on coins

Internationalism. Unadapted borrowing from translingual ·.

·

1. (mathematics) The product operator.
   • 2025 June 25 (last accessed), “Decimaltal [Decimal number]”, in Matteboken:

     Om hennes lön är 114 kr per timme får hon: 114 ⋅ 31,53 = 3594,42 ≈ 3594 kronor.

     If her wage is 114 kronor per hour, she gets: 114 × 31.53 = 3594.42 ≈ 3594 kronor.

   Synonyms: (informal) ×, (colloquial) *

   Near-synonym: gånger (“times”)

   Antonyms: ÷, /

   7 · 8 = 56

• Colloquially, the symbols * and × are also commonly used, likely because they are more accessible on keyboards and similar devices.

• “Frågelådan [The Question Box]”, in Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore (in Swedish), 25 June 2025 (last accessed): “Kryss kan också användas vid multiplikation och betyder då ’multiplicerat med’, eller mer vardagligt ’gånger’: 5 × 2 = 10. Det normala tecknet för multiplikation i svenska texter är dock en centrerad punkt: 5 · 2 = 10. ― The cross can also be used for multiplication, in which case it means ‘multiplied by’, or more informally ‘times’: 5 × 2 = 10. However, the standard symbol for multiplication in Swedish texts is a centred dot: 5 · 2 = 10.”