Dry clean
The item can be dry cleaned by a professional cleaner.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The circle is the professional cleaning symbol. A letter inside tells the cleaner which solvents can be used: in the Canadian government's guide, P means any solvent except trichloroethylene and F means petroleum solvent only. A W marks professional wet cleaning in water, and a bar under the circle calls for a milder process.
Where a garment's own label or its manufacturer says otherwise, that takes precedence.
Differences by country or standard
In the GINETEX system, a bar under the circle warns the cleaner generally about possible harm from mechanical action, drying temperature or water added to the solvent. The US system, from ASTM, puts lines beside the circle at an angle instead, to show refinements; a University of Tennessee Extension guide lists short cycle, reduced moisture, low heat and no steam finishing among them.
The least understood symbol
In a survey of 6,000 people in six European countries, carried out by IPSOS for GINETEX in December 2016, the professional cleaning circle was the least understood care symbol: 21% of people interpreted it correctly.
Read next
- Next in Laundry symbolsDo not dry cleanThe item is not to be dry cleaned.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of RwandaA sky-blue upper half over a yellow and a green stripe, with a golden sun on the right of the blue. The Kigali newspaper The New Times and the Larousse encyclopedia explain the blue as happiness and peace, the yellow as economic development, the green as the hope of prosperity and the sun as enlightenment.
More laundry symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles.
Sources
- Textiles — Care labelling code using symbols, ISO 3758, ISO, Abstract (ISO 3758:2023)
- Standard Guide for Care Symbols for Care Instructions on Textile Products, ASTM D5489, ASTM International, section 4.6 (ASTM D5489-25)
- Textile Care Symbols, GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling, p. 9
- Guide to Apparel and Textile Care Symbols, CAN/CGSB-86.1-2003, Office of Consumer Affairs, Government of Canada, p. 5
- Trade Regulation Rule on Care Labeling of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods (interim rule, 1997), 62 FR 5724, 6 February 1997, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Register (govinfo.gov)
- Care Label Symbols, University of Tennessee Extension
- A barometer for textile care labelling in Europe, IPSOS study for GINETEX, December 2016, GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we research
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