What Those Laundry Symbols on Your Clothes Really Mean

No, those aren’t hieroglyphics.

Published November 3, 2024

·

Updated November 3, 2024

Doing laundry can at times be a confusing venture. While in some cases, garments have a care tag showing the wash and dry instructions in plain English (along with a few other languages, typically), that isn’t always the situation. Many pieces of clothing instead opt for care tags that eschew clear instructions in favor of a confusing array of symbols.

These hieroglyphics of squares, circles, open-topped trapezoids and squiggly lines seem impossible to decipher if you don’t know what to look for. But once you understand the basic tenets behind these symbols, they suddenly become remarkably simple to understand. Below, I’ve laid out the most common laundry symbols you’re likely to encounter the next time you do a load. Granted, this isn’t a comprehensive list — there are symbols out there for practically every laundering situation imaginable — but with this foundation, you’ll know your way around most care tags.

Machine Wash

If you see this symbol, it means it’s safe to put your clothes in the washing machine.

Hand Wash

Come across this guy, and you’ll have to wash your clothes by hand rather than in the washer.

Dry Clean Only

When this symbol rears its ugly head, a trip to the dry cleaners is in order.

Do Not Dry Clean

Some items you may be tempted to dry clean, but if you ever see this symbol, you should avoid doing so or else risk ruining your clothes.

Do Not Wash

This symbol is not giving you permission not to clean your garment. Instead, it’s telling you not to put it in the washing machine. Stick with hand washing or dry cleaning, depending on what other symbols appear.

Wash Cycles

Normal

Your eyes do not deceive you: this is the same symbol as “Machine Wash.” If you see it without additional wash instructions, it means your machine’s regular cycle is fine.

Permanent Press

A single line under the machine symbol signifies that the permanent press cycle should be used.

Gentle/Delicates

Got two lines under your normal machine symbol? Time for the gentle cycle.

Cold Wash Temperature

A single filled-in circle inside your machine symbol means you need to do a cold wash. Alternatively, this is sometimes represented by the number 30 (for 30 degrees celsius) in place of the circle.

Warm Wash Temperature

Two filled-in circles calls for a warm wash. This is sometimes represented by a 40 in place of the two dots.

Hot Wash Temperature

You’re probably getting the hang of this now. 3 dots = a hot wash, but it sometimes is represented by a 50 instead.

Tumble Dry

One of the best symbols to see on a care tag, this one means you’re free to toss your clothes in the dryer and don’t have to worry about finding a place to hang them.

Do Not Tumble Dry

On the flip side, this one is a bummer, as it means you’re either going to have to line-dry your clothes or dry them flat.

Line Dry

This symbol means your clothes must be hung to dry rather than machine-dried. A similar symbol — a square with two diagonal lines in the upper lefthand corner — means to line dry them in the shade, out of the sun.

Dry Flat

Often seen on sweaters, finicky garments with this symbol can’t be tumble-dried or line-dried. Instead, they must be laid flat to dry, otherwise, they can become stretched out and lose their shape.

Drip Dry

This is basically the same as line-drying, but it indicates a fabric that’s going to come out of the wash wetter than a line-dry item. You typically want to hang items with this symbol in the shower to dry in order to avoid a mess.

Do Not Wring

You may be tempted to wring out especially wet clothes (see above), but if you see this symbol, don’t do it unless you want a misshapen garment.

Normal Dry Cycle

Just like with machine washing, the presence of the “Tumble Dry” symbol here with no other drying instructions means you can dry on the normal setting.

Permanent Press

Also borrowed from machine-washing symbols, the single line here indicates a permanent press dryer cycle.

Gentle/Delicates

One more line here, just like with machine washing, means you want your dryer’s gentlest setting.

No Heat

That huge filled-in circle is a strong indicator that tumbling is ok, but heat is definitely not.

Low Heat

Annnnnd we’re back to familiar symbols. One small filled-in circle inside the dryer symbol means you should stick to the low heat setting.

Medium Heat

Two dots means medium heat, just like with the washing symbols.

High Heat

Got three dots? Go ahead and crank the dryer’s heat to full blast.

Low Heat Iron

See? This is getting easy now. One filled-in circle means iron on low heat.

Medium Heat Iron

Two circles: medium heat.

High Heat Iron

Three circles: no heat. Kidding, it’s high heat, just keeping you on your toes.

Do Not Steam

Typically when ironing something, you’ll want to use steam to get the wrinkles out, but this symbol means you should avoid doing so. It also, naturally, means you shouldn’t use a garment steamer, either.