Every laundry symbol, explained: the complete wash care label chart
Five shapes, three modifiers and about forty symbols in total. Once you know the three rules, you can read a label you have never seen before.
Laundry symbols are a five-shape code: a washtub for washing, a triangle for bleaching, a square for drying, an iron for ironing, and a circle for professional cleaning. Three modifiers change their meaning - a cross means do not, dots set the temperature, and a bar underneath means be gentler.
That is the entire system. The symbols are wordless because a label has to work in every country a garment is sold in, and the standard behind them is ISO 3758, the care labelling code published by GINETEX. Learn the three rules and you can read a label you have never seen, which is the point of the whole scheme.
The three rules that cover everything
| Modifier | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A cross through any symbol | Do not do this at all | Crossed-out iron means do not iron |
| Dots inside a symbol | Temperature. More dots is hotter | Three dots in an iron means the hottest setting |
| A bar underneath a symbol | Reduce the mechanical action - gentler cycle, slower spin | A washtub with one bar means the mild or synthetics programme |
| Two bars underneath | Gentler still - the delicate programme, minimal spin | A washtub with two bars is what a wool programme corresponds to |
The washtub: washing
A tub of water. Everything inside or underneath it modifies how the garment may be washed. The number is degrees Celsius, and it is a maximum rather than a recommendation.
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| Plain washtub | May be machine washed, no temperature restriction stated |
| Washtub with 30 | Machine wash, maximum 30 C |
| Washtub with 40 | Machine wash, maximum 40 C |
| Washtub with 50 | Machine wash, maximum 50 C |
| Washtub with 60 | Machine wash, maximum 60 C |
| Washtub with 70 | Machine wash, maximum 70 C |
| Washtub with 95 | Machine wash, maximum 95 C - a boil wash, now rare on clothing |
| Washtub with one dot | Maximum 30 C |
| Washtub with two dots | Maximum 40 C |
| Washtub with three dots | Maximum 50 C |
| Washtub with four dots | Maximum 60 C |
| Washtub with five dots | Maximum 70 C |
| Washtub with six dots | Maximum 95 C |
| Washtub with one bar underneath | Mild programme - reduced agitation and a slower spin. The synthetics setting on most machines |
| Washtub with two bars underneath | Very mild programme - minimal agitation, low spin. The delicates or wool setting |
| Washtub with a hand in it | Hand wash only. No machine, at or below 40 C |
| Washtub crossed out | Do not wash in water at all - clean it professionally |
A temperature on a label is a ceiling, not an instruction. Washing at 30 C when the label permits 40 C is always allowed and is almost always better for the garment. The reverse is not true.
The hand wash symbol
The hand wash symbol is a washtub with a hand reaching into it. It means the garment must be washed by hand and not put through a machine at all, in water at or below 40 C - hand-hot at the very most, and cooler is safer.
In practice that means: fill a basin, dissolve the detergent before the garment goes in, press water through the fabric rather than rubbing or twisting it, rinse until the water runs clear, then lift the garment out supporting its weight. Never wring it. Press the water out between two towels and dry it flat if it is a knit.
The hand wash symbol and a hand wash machine cycle are not the same promise. A delicates or hand-wash programme still agitates and still spins, and on a loose wool knit or an embellished kurta that is usually enough to do damage. If the label shows the hand in the tub, the machine is not an option the label gave you.
A hand wash symbol with a bar underneath, which some labels carry, is asking for even less handling than ordinary hand washing - short soak, minimal movement, no rubbing at all.
The triangle: bleaching
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| Plain triangle | Any bleach may be used, including chlorine bleach |
| Triangle with two diagonal lines inside | Oxygen or non-chlorine bleach only. No chlorine bleach |
| Triangle crossed out | Do not bleach by any method |
| Triangle containing the letters CL | An older notation meaning chlorine bleach is permitted |
The square: drying
The square covers two different things, and which one depends on what is inside it. A circle inside the square means a tumble dryer. Lines inside the square mean natural drying, with no machine involved.
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| Circle inside a square | May be tumble dried |
| Circle inside a square, one dot | Tumble dry on a lower heat setting |
| Circle inside a square, two dots | Tumble dry on a normal heat setting |
| Circle inside a square, crossed out | Do not tumble dry |
| Square with one vertical line | Line dry - hang it up to dry |
| Square with two vertical lines | Drip dry - hang it wet, without spinning or wringing first |
| Square with one horizontal line | Dry flat, on a rack or a towel rather than a hanger |
| Square with two horizontal lines | Drip dry flat - lay it out still wet, unspun |
| Square with a diagonal stripe in the top-left corner | Dry in the shade. Combines with any of the drying symbols above |
| Plain square | Drying is permitted, with no method specified |
| Square crossed out | Do not dry by any domestic method - uncommon, and usually paired with a professional care instruction |
Do not tumble dry, and dry in the shade
The crossed-out circle-in-square is the single most ignored symbol on an Indian care label, and it is usually there because of elastane, wool or a print. Tumble heat is what makes activewear lose its stretch, wool felt and a printed t-shirt crack. There is no gentle setting that gets around it - the symbol is crossed out, not barred.
Dry in the shade matters more here than in most of the countries these labels are designed for. Direct Indian sun is a powerful bleach: it fades dyed cotton visibly within a season and weakens the fibre over time. The diagonal stripe in the corner of the square is asking for a shaded, ventilated spot, not for indoor drying - and in monsoon humidity, airflow is the part that matters, because a garment put away even slightly damp is how mildew starts.
The iron
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| Plain iron | May be ironed |
| Iron with one dot | Maximum 110 C - the lowest setting, usually without steam. Synthetics, elastane blends |
| Iron with two dots | Maximum 150 C. Wool, silk, polyester blends |
| Iron with three dots | Maximum 200 C - the hottest setting. Cotton and linen |
| Iron with the steam lines beneath it crossed out | Do not use steam. Dry iron only |
| Iron crossed out | Do not iron at all |
The circle: professional cleaning
The circle is the only symbol on the label that is not addressed to you. The letter inside it tells a professional cleaner which solvent or process to use, and the bar underneath tells them to use a milder version of it.
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| Circle with a P | Dry clean with tetrachloroethylene, commonly called perc, and with the solvents listed under F |
| Circle with a P and one bar | Dry clean with perc, mild process |
| Circle with an F | Dry clean with hydrocarbon solvents only |
| Circle with an F and one bar | Dry clean with hydrocarbon solvents, mild process |
| Circle with an A | An older notation meaning any dry-cleaning solvent is acceptable |
| Circle crossed out | Do not dry clean |
| Circle with a W | Professional wet cleaning is permitted |
| Circle with a W and one bar | Professional wet cleaning, mild process |
| Circle with a W and two bars | Professional wet cleaning, very mild process |
| Circle with a W crossed out | Do not wet clean professionally |
Dry clean only sometimes means the manufacturer never tested washing rather than that washing would destroy the garment. Structured tailoring, most silk and anything with fused interlining genuinely needs it. A plain wool knit or a rayon kurta is often hand-washable - but test on an inside seam first, and accept that the risk is yours and not the label's.
Symbols people search for that do not exist
Two of the most-searched laundry symbols are not part of the standard at all, which is worth knowing before you spend an evening hunting for them.
- Wash separately. There is no ISO 3758 symbol for it. It is printed as words - wash separately, wash before first use, colours may run - and some brands draw a non-standard icon of their own. If you cannot find a symbol, that is because there is not one.
- A wool symbol. ISO 3758 has no fibre-specific icons. Wool garments carry an ordinary washtub with two bars, or the hand-in-tub symbol, usually at 30 or 40 C. The Woolmark logo that appears on some labels certifies the fibre, not a washing instruction.
- Do not wring. A twisted-fabric shape with a cross through it appears on a great many labels, especially on rayon and silk, but it sits outside the five core shapes. It means exactly what it looks like: press the water out, never twist.
- A fibre composition symbol. Composition is always text - 100 per cent cotton, 95 per cent cotton 5 per cent elastane - because no symbol set could cover the combinations.
Reading a whole label in order
Symbols are printed in a fixed sequence: wash, bleach, dry, iron, professional care. Read them in that order and the label becomes a set of instructions rather than a row of shapes.
A common Indian label reads: washtub with two dots and one bar, crossed-out triangle, crossed-out tumble-dry circle with a diagonal corner stripe, two-dot iron, crossed-out circle. That is: machine wash at 40 C on the synthetics cycle, no bleach, no tumble dryer, line dry in the shade, iron on medium, do not dry clean. Seven instructions in five symbols.
Frequently asked
Worth knowing which of these actually decides how long a garment lasts, though: the label is a ceiling on what will not damage the fabric, and most clothes in India are worn out by frequency, heat and sunlight rather than by a wrong symbol. Washing less often, washing cooler, turning garments inside out and drying in shade will do more than perfect symbol compliance ever will.
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