Heart <3
<3 is a heart lying on its side, typed with the less-than sign and the number 3. It means love or affection, as in “I <3 New York”.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Dictionary.com calls <3 a typographical representation of a heart, used for love and other warm feelings, and notes that it can stand for the word love or heart. Britannica’s list of emoticons gives the same main reading, “used to show love”, and its opposite, </3, for heartbreak or hurt. People add 3s for emphasis: Dictionary.com’s example is <33333 rather than a row of separate hearts. In speech it is sometimes said aloud as “less than three”. It also turns up inside Japanese-style kaomoji faces.
Also searched as: <3 meaning, less than three, what does <3 mean.
<3 or ❤️
Dictionary.com says that typing <3 now often calls back to the earlier internet, and that “i <3 u” can read as cuter, more innocent or more earnest than a heart emoji. It also notes that on a computer keyboard <3 can simply be quicker to type than finding the emoji.
More emoticons
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves or lines.
Sources
- <3 (Dictionary.com Emoji Dictionary), Dictionary.com Emoji Dictionary, 25 April 2018, Dictionary.com, Entry text
- List of emoticons, Tara Ramanathan, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, <3
- emoticon, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Introduction
- The original smiley post, 19 September 1982, Carnegie Mellon smiley pages (bulletin-board thread recovered from backup tapes), Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science, Original post
Last reviewed October 1, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research