Escape

The escape key, often abbreviated as  , is a special key found on the left side of most modern computer keyboards which can be pressed to abort execution of a program or a data entry function. It can also be used to initiate an which typically starts with an  (ASCII 27).

History
The  was released by  in August 1978 with s that were standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

As Mac users had traditionally pressing been   to replicate the effect of an escape key, Apple omitted the escape key from the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Users also expressed frustration about the virtual escape key disappearing from the Touch Bar on 15-inch MacBook Pro models after updating to macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina). Apple re-instated a hardware escape key in the 16-inch MacBook Pro in November 2019, followed by the return of the full hardware function key set in October 2021.