Backspace

The backspace icon represents a keyboard key used to delete characters. It originated from early typewriters and is now widely used in digital interfaces. The backspace key is essential for editing text.

In software applications, the backspace icon appears in text editors, word processors, and chat interfaces. For example, it's commonly used in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and messaging apps like WhatsApp.

From a UX perspective, the backspace icon communicates the ability to correct mistakes and erase unwanted text. It helps users understand that they can delete characters and correct their input.

Backspace is one of 15,390 icons in Material Symbols Light, made by Google and released under Apache 2.0. It is drawn on a 24 × 24 grid.

Sign in (it's free), then open Get icon, Install with shadcn CLI, and pick your package manager to copy the command. It adds BackspaceIcon to components/icons/material-symbols-light-backspace.tsx: one file, a size prop (24 by default) and every SVG prop, with no icon package.

Copy it as React (from Get icon, or the Code section): a typed BackspaceIcon component you paste into your project, with no package to install. Only the icons you import reach your bundle. It works in Next.js and any React app.

Open Get icon, then Copy as code, and pick Vue, Svelte, Angular, Solid or Preact; the Code section shows each one too. Every version is one self-contained component with the SVG inside, and SVG and data URL copies are there for plain HTML and CSS.

With Pro, the shadcn.io MCP server lets Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client find the Backspace icon, or any of 15,390 Material Symbols Light icons, and install it from a prompt.

It's drawn in currentColor, so it takes the text color wherever you use it: a class like text-primary recolors it. To bake a color in, set one in Customize before you copy.

Set width and height on the component, or a class like size-6. It's drawn on a 24 × 24 grid, so it stays sharp at any size. Customize also sets the size it exports at, its padding and rotation.

Yes. It follows the text color, so with text-foreground (or any theme token) it changes with your light and dark themes. The icon is a vector, so it needs no separate dark asset.

Next to a visible label it's decoration: add aria-hidden="true" so screen readers skip it. Standing alone, as in an icon button, give the button a name instead, like aria-label="Backspace", so screen readers say what it does.

Yes. BackspaceIcon passes every SVG prop to the svg element, so <BackspaceIcon aria-hidden="true" /> works, and so do role="img" with aria-label, or a title child, when it carries meaning on its own.

Yes. Open Get icon, then Download file: SVG for code or design tools like Figma; PNG, WebP or JPEG at 512px; or an ICO favicon with 16, 32 and 48px inside. Each one uses what you set in Customize.

Yes. Apache 2.0 allows commercial use; keep the license notice when you ship the icons' source files. The full terms are in the license, linked on this page.

No visible credit is required: Apache 2.0 only asks that you keep the license notice if you ship the icons' source files. Icons installed with the shadcn CLI already start with a comment naming Material Symbols Light, Google and the license.

Yes. Copying and downloading it is free, and the shadcn CLI install only needs a free account.

8 other libraries draw an icon called Backspace. The Other libraries section on this page shows each one, so you can compare them and open the one that fits your style.

Its tags are interface, action, material, editing, keyboard and typing. Each tag page lists the icons that carry it from every library, which is the quickest way to find a match for Backspace in another set.

Material Symbols Light draws many icons in several styles: Outline, Rounded and Sharp next to the default. Open the library and pick a style above the grid to see Backspace's siblings in it.