Diagonal three dots (⋱) symbol in LaTeX

In this tutorial, I will show you how to get diagonal three dots in LaTeX with the default command and other packages.

LaTeX provides a default command \ddots to get diagonal three dots in the document. Generally, this symbol is used in a matrix.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath} % For matrix
\begin{document} 

$$ \verb|\ddots|\rightarrow \ddots $$
$$
\begin{bmatrix}
  a_1    & \cdots &     \\
  \vdots & \ddots &     \\
         &        & a_n 
\end{bmatrix}
$$

\end{document}

Output:

Diagonal three dots with other packages

You can use different packages to get different Diagonal three dots. Some packages in LaTeX provide \ddots commands but you may see some differences in their output.

Package	Command	Output
None	\ddots
MnSymbol	\ddots
fdsymbol	\ddots
stix	\ddots

Let’s try with the stix package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath} % For matrix
\usepackage{stix}
\begin{document} 

$$ \verb|\ddots|\rightarrow \ddots $$
$$
\begin{bmatrix}
  a_1    & \cdots &     \\
  \vdots & \ddots &     \\
         &        & a_n 
\end{bmatrix}
$$

\end{document}

Output:

Diagonal two dots in LaTeX

If you want a diagonal two dots in LaTeX, then you can use the \ddotdot command provided by the MnSymbol package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath} % For matrix
\usepackage{MnSymbol}
\begin{document} 

  $$ \verb|\ddotdot|\rightarrow \ddotdot $$
  $$
\begin{bmatrix}
  a_1    & \cdots &     \\
  \vdots & \ddotdot &     \\
         &        & a_n 
\end{bmatrix}
$$

\end{document}

Output: