Have you seen those “three little lines” which always open a menu? (≡) The three lines menu.
Have you ever had to refer to them without knowing what to call them? Well now after reading this short post you will have some idea and be able to describe them without having to use the saying “those three little lines”.
You can feel confidant using the correct words and grammar to describe them!
The lines are popularly referred to as the hamburger icon and was said to be the “menu icon” so if the menu didn’t fit on a screen, then this would take its place and present the menu once selected. That is the reason you see them more on tablets and mobile phones, the screen is small so cannot display the full menu in a size readable, so they use the menu-icon.
Menu-icon is not even a good word to describe it, but it is what is accepted on the internet. However, if you really want to put some logic to it, we need to look at it for what it is. It is an icon on computers used to represent a list view of several items.
That is the same for every website, app or program that uses it, it displays a “Horizontal” “List” ≡ just like the paragraph, bullets, and numbering list icons in Microsoft Word.
So what should we call it? Nothing in IT and computers is called anything like Hamburger (Exclude OS names) Menu-Item is the name Microsoft Narrator uses to describe it but also describes any menu tab the same way. The correct name for this icon is list view icon, as it displays numerous items in a list view.
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