The element-of symbol is used in mathematical set theory to indicate that a point, object, or number belongs to a certain set. The symbol resembles the lowercase Greek letter epsilon, but stretched out ( 
). The symbol is read "is an element of," "is a member of," "is in," or "belongs to."
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As an example of the use of the element-of symbol, consider that 3 is an element of the set containing the first five positive integers. We write this as follows:
3 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
When a point, object, or number does not belong to a specified set, the not-element-of symbol is used. This looks like the element-of symbol with a forward slash through it ( 
). It is read "is not an element of," "is not a member of," "is not in," or "does not belong to."
As an example of the use of the not-element-of symbol, we can say that 7 is not in the set containing the first five positive integers:
7 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
Also see Mathematical Symbols .
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