What do the shapes △ ◯ ╳ ◻ mean in Japanese? And are there variations in meaning, depending on whether or not the shape is filled?


I am interested in Japanese culture and the symbolism used in Japan,
specifically I'd like to know what the △ triangle, ◯ circle, ╳ cross and ◻
square mean to a Japanese person.

How are those shapes interpreted and do they vary depending on there being
filled or not?




  * ○ まる 
    * **OK; correct; yes; supported; available** (like `✔`; note that the check mark usually means "wrong" in Japanese examinations)
    * masked/censored character (like `*` in English used to mask characters in certain words; see [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/11810/5010))
    * rival horse; second likely to win (horse race; favorite horse is marked with `◎`)
    * win; victory; [白星](http://jisho.org/search/%E7%99%BD%E6%98%9F) (when used as opposed to 黒星 = `●` = lose)
  * × ばつ、ぺけ、ばってん 
    * **NG; wrong; no; unsupported; unavailable**
    * masked/censored character (mainly for sexual reasons; cf: [ちょめちょめ](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/62154/5010))
    * multiplication (math)
    * lose (game)
    * dead; extinct; obsolete (word, species, person; like `†` in English)
    * used to denote romantic relationships, especially in _yaoi_ fandom (like "slash" `/` in English)
    * finished (calendar, event)
  * △ さんかく 
    * **partially OK; partially supported; nearly sold out; between ○ and ×; questionable**
    * second move; [後手](http://jisho.org/word/%E5%BE%8C%E6%89%8B) (in shogi, when used as opposed to `▲` = first move; sometimes inverted (`▽`))
    * negative value/earnings (finance, when positive values are marked with nothing)
    * money gain; increase (stock market, when used as opposed to `▲` = loss)
    * dark horse; third likely to win (horse race)
  * □ しかく 
    * unavailable character; glyph missing (see: [豆腐](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/5129/5010) and [_geta_ symbol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_typographic_symbols#Other_special_marks))
    * full-width space (as opposed to the dot `・` used to denote half-width (ascii) spaces)

And these symbols can be used as the casual placeholder for other arbitrary
words/characters. (See
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/12907/5010))

As you can see, depending on the context, filled symbols often mean the
opposite things to the unfilled ones.

