HOLD (display hold)
HOLD freezes the reading on the display. H or HOLD on the screen shows that the hold is on.
How to read it
Fluke’s guide describes Hold as capturing and holding a stable measurement, and its 114 to 117 manual says the display freezes the present reading while hold is enabled. Klein Tools’ MM400 shows H for data hold, and a second press of HOLD releases the display and returns it to live measuring. Extech lists HOLD on its display as display hold.
Some Fluke models have AutoHOLD instead: it captures a measurement, beeps, locks it on the display, and updates it by itself with each new stable reading.
Also searched as: auto hold, data hold, HOLD button, H on a multimeter.
These pages describe what each setting, marking and reading means. They are not instructions for measuring anything. Meters differ between makers and models: the meter’s own manual says what each of its symbols means, which measurements it is rated for, and how to use it safely.
What Fluke’s manual warns
While Display HOLD is on, Fluke’s manual warns, the display will not change when a different voltage is applied. The meter also refuses a range change in HOLD and beeps twice.
Look-alikes
MIN MAX is the button often beside HOLD: on Klein’s MM400 it keeps track of the lowest and highest readings while the meter goes on measuring, where HOLD freezes one reading. AUTO on the display is the range mode.
Read next
- Next in Multimeter symbolsAUTO and RANGE (autoranging)AUTO on the display means the meter is autoranging: it chooses the measurement range itself. RANGE is the button that switches to manual ranging, where the user chooses the range and AUTO goes out.
- The same shape in Accessibility symbolsClosed captioning symbol (CC)CC means closed captioning: the dialogue and other sounds of a programme shown as text on screen, which viewers can turn on or off. It is mainly for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
More multimeter symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Multimeter Symbols, Buttons, Dials, and Display, Fluke learning centre article, Fluke Corporation, Digital multimeter buttons; display
- 114, 115, and 117 True-rms Multimeters: Users Manual, PN 2572573, July 2006, Rev. 1, 2/07, Fluke Corporation (copy hosted by UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering), Display; Display HOLD; Manual and autoranging
- MM400 Auto-Ranging Digital Multimeter: Instruction Manual, MM400 instruction manual, Klein Tools (copy hosted by UBC Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences), Symbols on LCD; Function buttons
- Mini Multimeter with Non-Contact Voltage Detector, Model EX330: User’s Guide, EX330-EU-ENG V4.2 1/08, Extech Instruments (copy hosted by Core Electronics), Display symbols and annunciators
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
Added .