Pairs of Compasses or Dividers are used in manual geometry and in classic map navigation. They are a symbol for mathematics or engineering. They have also been used, for instance, in the flag of the German Democratic Republic until 1990 and in the Square and Compasses symbol of the Freemasons.

A pre-emoji proposal to Unicode in 2003, N2655 = L2/03-354, documented several symbols used in classic print dictionaries to identify fields for technical terms. Most have been added and many of them later became emojis, but Compasses, Spade #177 and Plummet #242 did not.