What ؈ means
It marks a circle’s radius in Arabic-script mathematics.
A radius is the distance from a circle’s center to its edge. Arabic calls it نصف قطر (“half a diameter”), while شعاع means a geometric ray. The sign’s compact model is نق, two Arabic letters. The wider Arabic mathematical notation tradition is recorded in manuscripts, handbooks, and print over many centuries.
Why was ؈ added to digital text?
It gives Arabic mathematical notation a digital form.
The proposal requested a letter-like Arabic “ray” character so Arabic-script mathematics, including older material, could be represented accurately. It grouped ؈ with Arabic-Indic cube-root, fourth-root, per-mille, and per-ten-thousand signs: companions in notation and encoding history, not in mathematical meaning. Regional practice varies: some styles use Arabic letters; others use mirrored Latin or Greek symbols.
Why can ؈ look like only ق?
Some fonts draw only part of its intended form.
؈ runs right to left but does not join neighboring letters. Amiri, an Arabic typeface, changed its glyph in 2017 to resemble نق rather than only ق. If you see just ق, the Arabic letter qāf, the font may be missing the nūn-like part of the sign.
Technical and niche: it belongs in Arabic-script geometry and mathematical typesetting.
The English name says “ray,” but this sign marks a circle’s radius.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ؈ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ؈
؈\0608Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.