What ㄒ means
It marks the Mandarin initial written x in Hanyu Pinyin. Zhuyin is a set of phonetic symbols used to show how Chinese characters are pronounced. ㄒ needs vowel symbols to complete a syllable, and a tone mark may be added: ㄒㄧ is an unfinished “xi” spelling pattern, while ㄒㄩㄝˊ spells xué, as in 學. The letter was adapted from 丅, an old form of 下, for its sound.
The broader Zhuyin system grew out of a commission project: work took shape in 1913, and the first system was released in 1918 to standardize character readings and support literacy. Taiwan retained Zhuyin for schooling, dictionaries, and input; mainland China largely shifted the corresponding role to Pinyin.
What does ㄒ mean in a message?
Usually, it is pronunciation notation or an incomplete sound.
Read the surrounding syllable or character before deciding what it stands for. If a message contains only ㄒ, ask which syllable or character the sender means.
A technical and educational letter in Zhuyin, a pronunciation system.
A lone ㄒ is only a syllable’s opening sound; ask what it belongs to.
Who writes ㄒ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsA pronunciation guide for that character.
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
2
Combination ideas
2Worth knowing
- Printed pronunciation guides can set Bopomofo vertically or horizontally beside a character; its position does not change its sound.
Questions people ask
1Why does ㄒ 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
8
Collections with ㄒ
3
How to type or find ㄒ
- Also called
- zhuyin x · bopomofo x
- Search it as
- ㄒ · zhuyin · bopomofo · xi · xia · xie · xiao · xue
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ㄒ\3112Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.