Arabic Letter Lam Isolated Form

Use a Unicode picker or escape input for this exact form.

Arabic keyboards generally enter the base letter ل. In ordinary words, use that letter and let the font choose an isolated, final, initial, or medial shape from context. The form ﻝ encodes the isolated shape directly, so it can interrupt joining and cause text to compare differently.

Is ﻝ the same as ل?

They represent the same Arabic letter, but are different stored characters.

The base letter ل is the normal choice for Arabic text. The character ﻝ is a compatibility form that corresponds to its isolated shape. The two may look similar, but searching, comparing, or exchanging text can treat them differently.

What does lam do in Arabic?

Lam is the Arabic letter for the /l/ sound.

In Arabic, lam also appears in the definite article al-, meaning “the.” Before a sun letter, the article’s l sound assimilates to the next sound; before a moon letter, it remains audible. For example, القمر is al-qamar, while الشمس is ash-shams.

The letter’s history is much older than this encoded display form. Arabic writing developed from Nabataean, which developed from Aramaic. The Namara inscription, from the fourth century CE, is one of the early Arabic texts; a 2017 epigraphic study records lam–alif there and in other early inscriptions.