Arabic Mathematical Seen

As of 2026, type 1EE0E and press Alt+X in Microsoft Word for Windows.

This inserts the standalone mathematical form of Arabic Seen, the letter س. In an equation it can stand for an unknown or another quantity; the surrounding expression tells you its role.

Arabic algebraic notation appears in math books from the Maghreb, the part of North Africa west of Egypt, by the end of the 12th century, often in worked examples rather than continuous prose. Some examples are diagrams showing what to write on a reusable board dusted for calculations. A 2010 Unicode proposal describes Arabic mathematical letters across many centuries in Arabic- and Persian-script traditions and notes that Moroccan handbooks used the notation before French mathematical notation was adopted. Unicode's 2026 Standard says these symbols appear in most math handbooks published in West Asia, Libya, and Algeria.

Why is this a separate math character?

Its mathematical shape is distinct from the shape of Seen in a word.

Ordinary Arabic letters change shape to join words. Arabic mathematical notation instead uses isolated, initial, tailed, stretched, looped, and double-struck forms as separate characters because style can distinguish symbols. This is the isolated Seen; it does not join its neighbors.