What 艹 means
It preserves a Japanese source distinction for 艹.
The Japanese character-set standard JIS X 0213:2000 included 艹 for round-trip conversion with Unicode. A round trip means converting text to Unicode and back without losing which source character was used. Unicode keeps it as a compatibility ideograph—a form retained for conversion with an existing standard—not as a separate everyday word.
Why does normalization turn 艹 into 艹?
Normalization can fold 艹 into 艹.
Unicode normalization standardizes text forms and maps 艹 to U8279 (艹) in NFC, NFD, NFKC, and NFKD. The normalized text no longer records which source form was used. Avoid that normalization when preserving the distinction matters.
Technical and archival: 艹 marks a source-text distinction rather than a separate everyday word.
Keep 艹 when exact source identity matters; normalization can turn it into 艹.
Who writes 艹
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Don't confuse it with
1
Questions people ask
1Why does 艹 show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the CJK Compatibility Ideographs block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
More like this
8
How to type or find 艹
- Search it as
- FA5E · U+FA5E · JIS X 0213 · 艹 normalization · 艹 · grass radical
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
艹\FA5ECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.