What ﮶ means
It is an isolated three-dot component used to teach Arabic-script letters.
The documented encoding trail for this isolated form reaches back to a 2006 proposal cited in a 2008 submission to Unicode, the shared standard that assigns identities to text characters. The 2008 submission sought separate characters so teaching materials and references could display dot patterns used in Arabic-script letters. Those dates document the encoding effort, not the origin of the dots themselves.
Nuqta or nukta names a dot used as part of a letter; ijam refers to the dotting that distinguishes Arabic-script letter shapes. In Hausa Ajami, writing Hausa with Arabic script, the three-dot ijam is called wagaf. An encoding proposal links this isolated pattern to complete letters such as څ, ڜ, and ݑ. They share the dots, but each has its own base shape and sound.
Why does ﮶ look like a box?
It occupies its own space; it does not attach to a letter. Treat it as a separate character in a lesson or reference. It will not add dots to the preceding letter; use the complete character when you need a full letter.
A font that lacks this specialist character may show a missing-glyph box in its place. As of 2026, that box indicates a font coverage gap.
It reads like a diagram label or typography note, so it belongs in instruction and reference material.
Alone, it identifies neither a complete letter nor its sound; use the full letter when you mean one.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
3
Related characters
3
Questions people ask
1Why does ﮶ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the Arabic Presentation Forms-A block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
More like this
11
How to type or find ﮶
- Search it as
- FBB6 · triple nuqta · triple nukta · nuqta · nukta · ijam · wagaf · Arabic three dots
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
﮶\FBB6Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.