What 句 means
It groups words into a phrase, sentence, or verse line. Chinese 句 also counts utterances; Japanese uses it in terms for poetry and punctuation. In classical reading, 句 marked a complete unit; 讀 marked a pause.
Older forms are recorded in bronze inscriptions, manuscripts from the ancient state of Chu, small-seal script (an old Chinese style), and Shuowen Jiezi, an early dictionary. Its older hook sense is linked to 勾, also used for hooks or ticks.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsChinese grammar
A sentence or counted utterance.
Japanese poetry
A poetic line or haiku.
Don't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
3Classical Chinese sentence division and pause.
Japanese punctuation.
A Japanese haiku.
Questions people ask
1Why does 句 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 句
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 53E5, then Alt+X to get 句.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-53e5”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 53e5, then Enter or Space.
HTML
句CSS
\53E5Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
句
HTML hex
句
CSS content
content: "\53E5";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E5%8F%A5
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.