# \partial

The ∂ symbol (Partial differential, U+2202), written as \partial in LaTeX math mode.

https://texform.dev/latex/symbols/partial

## Metadata

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Topic | [Letter-like symbols](https://texform.dev/latex/topics/letter-like) |
| Packages | base |
| Allowed mode | math |
| Glyph | ∂ |
| Unicode | U+2202 PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL |
| Delimiter | No |

## Syntax

```latex
\partial
```

Takes no arguments.

## Common tasks

### How to write a partial derivative

```latex
\frac{\partial f}{\partial x}
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cfrac%7B%5Cpartial+f%7D%7B%5Cpartial+x%7D)

### How to write a mixed partial

```latex
\frac{\partial^2 f}{\partial x\partial y}
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cfrac%7B%5Cpartial%5E2+f%7D%7B%5Cpartial+x%5Cpartial+y%7D)

### How to write a partial symbol alone

```latex
\partial_t u + \partial_x f(u)=0
```

[Open in Playground](https://play.texform.dev/?input=%5Cpartial_t+u+%2B+%5Cpartial_x+f%28u%29%3D0)

## Usage frequency

6.49% of formulas in the measured corpus contain this entry, rank 14 of 474 entries with frequency data.

## In TeXForm

TeXForm parses this entry as a character leaf mapped to U+2202 (PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL).

## See also

- [\\backslash](https://texform.dev/latex/symbols/backslash)
- [\\lnot](https://texform.dev/latex/symbols/lnot)
- [\\neg](https://texform.dev/latex/symbols/neg)