What ⺍ means
It marks the 小 radical at a character’s top.
A radical is a component dictionaries use to group characters; this form also appears in radical indexes.
How far back does 小 go?
小 predates this radical: it appears in oracle-bone inscriptions (writing carved on bones for divination) and on bronze vessels. Its early shape is read either as three marks for “small” or as an early form of 沙 (“sand”).
Oracle-bone texts use 小 in terms for afternoon and dusk; bronze inscriptions use 小子 for a young aristocrat or junior official and 小臣 for a subordinate official.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⺍ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the CJK Radicals Supplement 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 ⺍
- Search it as
- ⺍ · small radical · radical index
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⺍\2E8DCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.