Ampersand

Also called and sign.

How to type it

Right index finger with Shift.

Common uses

• The ampersand stands for and, and appears in company names such as Johnson & Johnson.
• It is common in abbreviations and tight headings, such as Q&A and R&B.

Less common uses

• The symbol began as a ligature of the letters e and t, from the Latin et, meaning and.
• Schoolchildren once recited & as the last character of the alphabet, called and per se and.
• In HTML, & begins a character entity such as & or <.
• At the end of a shell command, & runs the command in the background.