Rubik's cube notation

This page describes the classic Singmaster notation for the Rubik's cube, with some commonly used additions.

Basic moves

Each of the six faces of the cube is assigned a letter:

A single letter (like U) denotes a 90° turn clockwise, a letter followed by a single quote (like U') denotes a 90° turn counter-clockwise, and a letter followed by a 2 (like U2) denotes a 180° turn.

Basic moves are summarized in the following table (white face on top and green face on front):

U	U'	U2
D	D'	D2
R	R'	R2
L	L'	L2
F	F'	F2
B	B'	B2

Note: "clockwise" or "counter-clockwise" is always intended when looking at the face you are turning. This is why from the pictures above it looks like, for example, U and D go in opposite directions.

If this sounds confusing, think about it: if you put a clock face down on the table, does it turn clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Full-cube rotations

Sometimes it is convenient to start a move sequence with the cube in a different orientation. To denote this, it is common to use the "moves" x, y and z that denote a full-cube rotation:

The same modifiers can be applied, so for example x2 is a full-cube rotation that follows R2 (or, equivalently, L2) and z' is a a full-cube rotation that follows F' (or, equivalently, B).

Inner-layer moves

Moving two parallel layers of the cube, one clockwise and one counter-clockwise, has the same effect as moving the inner layer between them. We usually denote these inner-layer moves by M, E and S.

M

E

S

The same modifiers can be applied, so for example M2 means moving the inner layer between R and L by 180°.

Note 1: unfortunately, the notation for inner-layer moves is not consistent with that for full-cube rotations. For example x follows R but M follows L.

Note 2: Inner-layer moves can always be rewritten as a combination of basic moves and full-cube rotations. For example, M' is equivalent to x R' L.