What ⬬ means
They filled a gap in Unicode’s set of geometric shapes.
In 2007, a Unicode proposal noted that the set included circles but no ellipses. It pointed to ellipse forms in mathematical publishing and outline ellipses on forms in both orientations, then proposed horizontal and vertical pairs in filled and outline styles.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
3
White Horizontal Ellipse
At tiny sizes, its outline can look nearly filled. Compare at a larger size if the fill distinction matters.
Black Large Circle
⬤ Black Large Circle is perfectly round; ⬬ is stretched sideways into an oval.
Black Rectangle
▬ Black Rectangle is a wide bar with square corners; ⬬ has rounded ends.
Related characters
2
Combination ideas
3A row of flat ovals as a divider
A legend: filled oval for on, hollow for off
Hollow and filled ovals alternating in a border
Questions 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.
More like this
12
Collections with ⬬
1
How to type or find ⬬
- Search it as
- black oval · horizontal ellipse symbol · white horizontal ellipse · vertical ellipse symbol
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Windows (Word)
Windows
HTML
⬬CSS
\2B2CCodes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⬬
HTML hex
⬬
CSS content
content: "\2B2C";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%AC%AC
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.