What is the "greater than" sign?

The "greater than" symbol is ">." The symbol resembles a V on its side. The symbol is used to dictate that one represented value is larger than another. When the symbol is facing the opposite way, such as "<," it represents "less than":

One way to remember which side represents greater or less than is to remember that the smaller end of the symbol always points to the smaller number of the two represented. A fun way for children to remember which way means greater than is to call the symbol an alligator. The alligator eats too much, pointing to the larger value.