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Rubik's cube notation

Rubik's cube notation explained with an animated cube for every move. Type any sequence of moves below and watch it turn, one move at a time.

Watch any sequence

Type moves, or pick an example, then press Watch it.

    Try one

    Letters U D R L F B, with ' for counter-clockwise and 2 for a half turn. Also Rw or r, M E S (3x3), x y z, and 2R or 3Rw on the 4x4.

    Every move, animated

    Press Play on any cube to see its move; each cube goes back to solved afterwards.

    Face turns

    One letter, one face, a quarter turn clockwise as you look straight at that face.

    RRight face clockwise: the front column goes up.
    LLeft face clockwise: the front column goes down.
    UTop face clockwise: the front row goes to the left.
    DBottom face clockwise: the front row goes to the right.
    FFront face clockwise, like a steering wheel turned right.
    BBack face clockwise as seen from behind, which looks counter-clockwise from the front.

    Prime and double turns

    An apostrophe (said "prime") reverses the direction; a 2 means a half turn, and its direction does not matter.

    R'Right face counter-clockwise: the front column goes down.
    R2Right face half turn.
    U'Top face counter-clockwise: the front row goes to the right.
    U2Top face half turn.
    F'Front face counter-clockwise.
    L'Left face counter-clockwise: the front column goes up.

    Wide turns

    A w (or a lowercase letter) turns the face and the layer behind it together. On a 3x3, Rw and r are the same move.

    RwRight two layers clockwise.
    rSame as Rw: lowercase means wide.
    UwTop two layers clockwise.
    FwFront two layers clockwise.
    LwLeft two layers clockwise.
    DwBottom two layers clockwise.

    Slice turns

    The middle layer only. M follows L, E follows D, S follows F.

    MMiddle layer between L and R, in the direction of L: the front goes down.
    M'Middle layer the other way: the front goes up.
    EEquator layer between U and D, in the direction of D: the front goes right.
    SStanding layer between F and B, in the direction of F.

    Whole-cube rotations

    Turn the whole cube in your hands. Rotations do not count as moves.

    xWhole cube like R: the front comes to the top.
    yWhole cube like U: the right side comes to the front.
    zWhole cube like F: the top goes to the right.
    x'Whole cube like R': the top comes to the front.

    4x4 moves

    Bigger cubes have inner layers. A number in front picks a layer counted from that face; with w it turns that many layers together.

    R4x4Only the outer right layer.
    2R4x4Only the second layer from the right (an inner slice).
    Rw4x4The outer two right layers together (same as 2Rw).
    3Rw4x4The three right layers together.
    Uw4x4The top two layers together.
    2U4x4Only the second layer from the top.

    Rubik's cube notation in one minute

    Rubik's cube notation is the short code that cube guides, solvers and timers use to write moves. It is the standard of the World Cube Association (WCA), the body that runs official competitions, and every 3x3 solver on this site uses it.

    • Six letters for six faces: R right, L left, U up, D down, F front, B back.
    • A letter alone is a quarter turn clockwise, judged as if you look straight at that face. That is why R moves the front column up while L moves it down: they turn the same way only when each is seen from its own side.
    • A prime (R', said "R prime") is a quarter turn counter-clockwise. A 2 (R2) is a half turn; clockwise or not makes no difference.
    • Wide turns: Rw or r turns the right face and the layer next to it together. On bigger cubes, 3Rw turns three layers.
    • Slices turn only a middle layer of the 3x3: M (between L and R, same direction as L), E (between U and D, like D) and S (between F and B, like F).
    • Rotations turn the whole cube in your hand: x like R, y like U, z like F. Nothing on the cube changes, only how you hold it.
    • Inner slices on a 4x4: a number in front without a w, like 2R, turns only that layer, counted from the face.

    Reading an algorithm

    Read it left to right and keep the same grip the whole time unless a rotation says otherwise: the face called F is whichever face points at you at that moment. Take R U R' U': right face up, top face to the left, right face down, top face to the right. Typed into the box above, you can watch it, step back one move, or press Reverse it to get the sequence that undoes it (here U R U' R'). Reversing reads the moves backwards and flips every quarter turn, which is how a scramble is undone.

    How moves are counted

    The WCA counts moves in the outer block turn metric: every face turn and every wide turn counts as one, half turns included, and rotations count as zero (WCA regulation 12a5). So R U2 x R' is three moves. The solvers on this site count the same way, and slice turns such as M count as one move when they appear.

    Common mix-ups

    • Clockwise for L, D and B. Look at the face itself: for D that means from below, so from the front the bottom row moves to the right.
    • U' versus U2. A prime is a quarter turn back; a 2 is a half turn.
    • Lowercase letters. In most guides r means the same as Rw. Some older 4x4 guides used r for the inner slice alone; check the guide's own key.
    • M direction. M follows L, so the front middle column goes down. Our animation shows it.

    Once the letters make sense, practice reading them on the Rubik's cube patterns page, where every pattern is a short sequence written in this notation.

    Sources: WCA Regulations, version of 1 April 2026, article 12 (notation). Rules checked . Found a problem? Tell us.

    Questions

    What does R' mean on a Rubik's cube?

    Turn the right face a quarter turn counter-clockwise, as you look at the right face. From the front, the right column moves down.

    What does the 2 in R2 mean?

    A half turn of the right face (180 degrees). Turning it either way gives the same result.

    What is the difference between r and R?

    R turns only the right face. r, also written Rw, turns the right face and the middle layer next to it together.

    What do x, y and z mean?

    They turn the whole cube in your hands without changing it: x in the direction of R, y in the direction of U, z in the direction of F. With a prime they go the other way.

    Which way is M?

    M turns the middle layer between L and R in the same direction as L, so the front middle column moves down. M' moves it up.

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