What ℅ means
It sends mail through the person or organization named after it.
In a c/o address, list the intended recipient first, then the intermediary. That person or organization receives the item and passes it on.
The abbreviation has a documented address history: a UK parliamentary record used “care of” or “c-o” in a telegraphic address in 1886, and c/o was common by 1889. Those dates describe the abbreviation, not the origin of ℅ itself.
Should I write ℅ or c/o?
Use c/o when the address needs to be easy to read.
The compact ℅ can be hard to recognize in small type and can resemble %. The slash in c/o stays visible, especially in handwriting or an unfamiliar address.
As of 2026, Norway’s postal guidance distinguishes c/o, which routes mail through another person’s address, from v/, which marks mail sent to someone receiving it on another person’s behalf.
℅ is formal and practical, used in addresses and administrative writing.
Use c/o if ℅ could be mistaken for % in that font or size.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Questions 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.
How to type ℅
℅\2105Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.