A pilcrow is the formal name for the paragraph symbol that writers use to mark a new paragraph.

The longer version

Medieval scribes marked a break in the text with a flourish, and printers later cast that flourish as a metal type. The shape is a stylised C with a bar through it, standing for the beginning of a new division, and it was often inked in red so that a reader could find it while scanning a page.

Editors and proofreaders still use it as a proofreading sign when a new paragraph is wanted, and word processors display it when hidden formatting is shown. Its companion, the section sign, works the same way for smaller divisions. Both survive mainly in professional markup rather than in ordinary prose, where an indent does the work.

Where this entry sits

This category gathers small surprises about the English language, from odd spelling rules to words that quietly hide their own history. Expect palindromes, punctuation oddities, borrowed terms, and the strange ways writing systems record spoken speech. The full list sits on the Words and Language page, where every entry is listed in order.