Braille cell, dots 1-3-4-5-7-8

Alone, ⣝ has no fixed reading; code and language determine its meaning. One cell can mean a letter, sign, or short word.

Text symbol

What ⣝ means

Braille is raised-dot writing read by touch. Dots 7 and 8 extend the six-dot layout into 8-dot Braille. As of 2026, Unicode encodes the pattern but leaves its reading to each code and language.

Why did Braille use raised dots?

They let blind readers read and write by touch. In 1815, Charles Barbier published his raised-dot method. Its twelve-dot cell was too large for one fingertip. Louis Braille, a blind student in Paris, developed a smaller six-dot code in the 1820s and published it in 1829.

Part of the collection

⠃

Braille Symbols

What it means when someone sends it to you

2 readings

Its code and language determine the reading.

Questions people ask

Why 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.