Braille pattern, dots 1-4-5-6-7-8

By itself, it names a dot pattern, not a word. Braille is a tactile writing system: raised dots form letters and other signs. Unicode encodes the dot arrangement, while the Braille code in use supplies its reading.

Its compact cell has a history. Before Braille, Valentin Haüy's embossed print let readers feel ordinary letters raised on a page. At the Paris school Louis Braille attended, Charles Barbier's twelve-dot writing was tried in 1821; a fingertip could not feel the tall cell all at once. Braille developed a six-dot cell that fit under one fingertip and published his system in 1829.

What does ⣹ mean when someone sends it?

The surrounding Braille code supplies its reading. A cell might stand for a letter, number, punctuation mark, contraction, musical sign, mathematical sign, or computer character. The language and Braille code determine which; the isolated glyph does not carry that context.

Eight-dot Braille extends a six-dot cell with positions 7 and 8. In computer Braille and on refreshable displays, those extra dots can mark capitalization or text attributes, or show cursor position.