Which symbol means loading?
There is no single official "loading" character, so people borrow a few familiar shapes. Circle arrows like ↻ and ⟳ say "reload" or "refresh", and most browsers draw their reload button as a clockwise arrow. ↺ is the anticlockwise version, often read as "undo" or "start over". 🔄 and 🔃 are the emoji versions.
Hourglasses mean "please wait". In emoji naming, ⏳︎ is "hourglass not done" (sand still flowing) and ⌛︎ is "hourglass done", so ⏳︎ fits "still loading" and ⌛︎ fits "time's up". Half-filled circles ◐ ◓ ◑ ◒ and the dotted circle ◌ look like the spinning wheel that apps show while they work, which designers call a spinner or throbber.
Make a text spinner
A single character cannot move, but a spinner is just a few frames shown in a loop. In a terminal script, a bot or a game, print one frame, wait a moment, and replace it with the next: ◐ ◓ ◑ ◒, or the quarter circles ◴ ◷ ◶ ◵. The classic ASCII spinner cycles | / - .
Many command-line tools use braille patterns for a smooth, tiny spinner: ⠋ ⠙ ⠹ ⠸ ⠼ ⠴ ⠦ ⠧ ⠇ ⠏. Each braille character is the same width, so the frames do not jump around. For a static status in a bio or chat, "Loading…" with ⏳︎ or a row of dots ● ○ ○ is clear enough. To show progress as a percentage, use the loading bar symbols instead.
How to type ↻ and ↺
In Microsoft Word, type 21BB and press Alt + X for ↻, or 21BA for ↺. In HTML, use ↻ and ↺. In LaTeX with the amssymb package, \circlearrowright gives ↻ and \circlearrowleft gives ↺. On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space and search "circle arrow".
On iPhone and Android, search "arrows" in the emoji keyboard to find 🔄 and 🔃, or "hourglass" for ⏳︎. More circular shapes are on the circle symbols page.