U

Updated: 03/10/2024 by Computer Hope

U may refer to any of the following:

1. U is chat slang used in chat as an abbreviated form of the word "you." For example, ICU is an abbreviation for "I see you."

2. In programs dealing with text, like a word processor, an icon of a "U" may be shown to represent the underline.

3. With HTML (hypertext markup language), the <u> tag is used to underline text. See our <u> tag page for further information on this tag.

4. U is a keyboard key used with the keyboard shortcuts Alt+U, Command+U, and Ctrl+U.

5. With regular expressions, "U" is a regular expression flag to do an ungreedy match. When used with a forward slash in a regular expression, a lowercase "\u" capitalizes (uppercases) the first letter in a match, and an uppercase "\U" capitalizes all letters matched.

6. With Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs, "U" is the twenty-first column of a spreadsheet. To reference the first cell in the column, you'd use "U1."

7. In Adobe Photoshop, U is a shortcut to select the Rectangle tool. Pressing Shift+U cycles through related tools, including the Ellipse tool, Triangle tool, Polygon tool, Line tool, and Custom Shape tool.

8. In the phonetic alphabet, "U" is often pronounced as "uniform."

9. With days of the week, U is an abbreviation for Sunday when only one character space is available.

10. U is the twenty-first letter of the English alphabet. The letter "U" comes after "T" and is followed by the letter "V." To create a capitalized "U," press Shift and U at the same time.

With U.S. QWERTY keyboards, the "U" key is on the top row, to the right of "Y" and left of the "I" key. See our keyboard page for a visual example of all keyboard keys.

Note

If the "U" key is not working on the keyboard, see: Some keys on my computer keyboard aren't working.

Tip

In ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), the uppercase "U" is "085" in decimal (01010101 in binary). The lowercase "u" is "117" in decimal (01110101 in binary).

Tip

Doing the Alt code Alt+85 creates a capital "U" and Alt+117 creates a lowercase "u" character.

Tip

The number 8 on a phone keypad creates a "U" on a US phone.

Chat terms, Computer abbreviations, Letter