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It is commonplace to use alphabets, fonts and typefaces to group symbols by type. The use of specific Latin and Greek letters as symbols for denoting mathematical objects is not described in this article. For such uses, see Variable § Conventional variable names and List of mathematical constants.
In general, an expression denotes or names a mathematical object, and plays therefore in the language of mathematics the role of a noun phrase in the natural language. An expression contains often some operators , and may therefore be evaluated by the action of the operators in it.
The following table lists many specialized symbols commonly used in modern mathematics, ordered by their introduction date. The table can also be ordered alphabetically by clicking on the relevant header title.
The following table lists many common symbols, together with their name, how they should be read out loud, and the related field of mathematics. Additionally, the subsequent columns contains an informal explanation, a short example, the Unicode location, the name for use in HTML documents, [1] and the LaTeX symbol.
Beyond primary education, the symbol '÷' for division is seldom used, but is replaced by the use of algebraic fractions, [12] typically written vertically with the numerator stacked above the denominator – which makes grouping explicit and unambiguous – but sometimes written inline using the slash or solidus symbol '/'.
In mathematical formulas, the ± symbol may be used to indicate a symbol that may be replaced by either of the plus and minus signs, + or −, allowing the formula to represent two values or two equations.
In logical argument and mathematical proof, the therefore sign, ∴, is generally used before a logical consequence, such as the conclusion of a syllogism. The symbol consists of three dots placed in an upright triangle and is read therefore. While it is not generally used in formal writing, it is used in mathematics and shorthand.
One can also speak of "almost all" integers having a property to mean "all except finitely many", despite the integers not admitting a measure for which this agrees with the previous usage. For example, "almost all prime numbers are odd". There is a more complicated meaning for integers as well, discussed in the main article.