Cuneiform Sign Mah

𒈤 writes Sumerian maḫ, “great.”

In verb phrases, maḫ can also mean “to make great.” Cuneiform signs could write words or sounds, so neighboring signs and the language help settle a reading.

The sign’s earliest known use falls in Early Dynastic IIIa, an early phase of Sumerian writing. It appears in later Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, and Hellenistic cuneiform records.

Why does 𒈤 look different in another font?

The encoded character stays the same while period styles draw signs differently.

Cuneiform signs can merge or split across periods: two historically distinct signs may come to share a shape, or one shape may separate into two. Unicode’s cuneiform guidance accounts for these changes in its representative signs.

A font without Cuneiform coverage may show a missing-glyph box or use another fallback. A different drawing by itself does not mean a different encoded character.

How do I type 𒈤?

Use a character picker or transliteration-based input.

An ordinary Latin keyboard has no dedicated key for 𒈤. A system character picker with Cuneiform support can select it; for longer strings, a cuneiform input method can accept transliteration, the conventional Latin-letter notation for sign readings.