A hollow circle beside one option and a filled circle beside another often looks like a simple state change: off versus on, empty versus full, unselected versus selected. Sometimes that is exactly how a document uses them. The text itself, however, may contain two different Unicode characters: ○ WHITE CIRCLE and ● BLACK CIRCLE.
Add ◎ BULLSEYE and the family gets more interesting. It still reads as circular at a glance, but the inner ring gives it a different encoded identity. Unicode supplies the shapes; a legend, interface, or notation system supplies the meaning.
○, ●, and ◎ Are Three Different Characters
| Character | Unicode name | Code point | Visual structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| ○ | WHITE CIRCLE | U+25CB | Outlined circle |
| ● | BLACK CIRCLE | U+25CF | Filled circle |
| ◎ | BULLSEYE | U+25CE | Circle inside a circle |
In the naming used for many geometric symbols, white and black separate open and filled forms. They are not promises about the color on screen; ordinary styling can recolor either character.
Why ○ and ● So Often Become Opposite States
The two symbols make a convenient visual pair, so authors reuse them for all kinds of contrasts: available/unavailable, empty/full, open/closed, or selected/unselected. Nothing in the Unicode names assigns those meanings.
They can just as easily be bullets in a chart or markers in a legend. A report might use ● for one data series and ○ for another without implying that either one is active or inactive.
The label beside the mark often tells you more than the circle itself. “Selected” describes what an interface is doing; BLACK CIRCLE is simply the character name.
◎ Has Several Close Relatives
◎ is U+25CE BULLSEYE. Calling it a “double circle” is understandable as a visual description, but that is not its Unicode name.
Unicode cross-references BULLSEYE with other target-like characters. One of them is 🞋 U+1F78B ROUND TARGET; others include ⭗ HEAVY CIRCLE WITH CIRCLE INSIDE and the mathematical ⊚ CIRCLED RING OPERATOR. At ordinary UI sizes, some of these can be surprisingly similar.
An app’s target control may be drawn entirely as vector artwork or an icon. In that case the familiar concentric shape is visual design, not a text character waiting to be copied.
Large and Small Circles Are Separate Characters Too
Circle size is encoded more explicitly than many readers expect. ◯ U+25EF LARGE CIRCLE is different from ○ U+25CB WHITE CIRCLE, while ⬤ U+2B24 BLACK LARGE CIRCLE is different from ● U+25CF BLACK CIRCLE.
Those distinctions are not merely a request to render the same character at a larger font size. In mathematical notation, the size of a circle can be intentional: Unicode’s math guidance treats size as potentially meaningful for simple geometric shapes.
A normal document may use the variants for nothing more than visual emphasis, but automatic cleanup should not collapse them solely because they are all circles.
○ and ● Are Not the Same as ⚪ and ⚫
Another pair that often gets folded into the same visual category is ⚪ U+26AA MEDIUM WHITE CIRCLE and ⚫ U+26AB MEDIUM BLACK CIRCLE. They are different characters from U+25CB ○ and U+25CF ●, even though a platform may render the pairs at similar sizes.
⚪ and ⚫ also belong to Unicode’s emoji repertoire, so many platforms give them a more pictorial presentation than the plain Geometric Shapes characters. If a copied dot suddenly becomes larger or more emoji-like in another app, U+26AA or U+26AB may be the reason rather than a simple font change.
Radio Buttons Only Look Like Unicode Circles
A browser radio button is a good example of why shape alone can mislead. The unchecked control is commonly drawn as a hollow circle, and the selected control usually gains an interior mark. Yet an HTML input in the Radio Button state has its own checkedness and group behavior; the page does not need to contain U+25CB or U+25CE as text.
Custom interfaces may go even further, drawing the control with CSS, SVG, an icon font, or an image. The result can resemble ○, ◎, or another circular glyph while having no direct Unicode identity.
That distinction matters when you try to copy the control. In many interfaces there is no circle character to copy—the circle exists only in the styling or icon asset.
A Record Button Is Not Necessarily ●
Media interfaces introduce a particularly close lookalike. ⏺ is U+23FA BLACK CIRCLE FOR RECORD, a dedicated character whose Unicode annotation identifies it with the record function. It is distinct from ● U+25CF BLACK CIRCLE.
A real recording button may still be drawn as an icon rather than either character. Seeing a solid circle therefore tells you what the control looks like; it does not, by itself, identify U+25CF.
When ○ Starts Looking Like O or 0
The hollow form has one extra ambiguity: in many fonts ○ can resemble capital O or the digit zero. If that is the problem you are solving, the comparison of ○, O, and 0 goes deeper into those letter-and-number lookalikes.
For the three symbols in this article, fill and the inner ring are useful visual clues. If you only have a screenshot, though, “hollow circle,” “filled circle,” or “concentric circle” may be more honest than claiming an exact Unicode character you cannot verify.