Devanagari Letter Uu

It marks the long “oo” vowel at a syllable’s start. In Devanagari, this independent vowel letter begins a syllable whose first sound is that vowel; Sanskrit is often shown in Latin-letter transliteration with ū for this sound.

The letter developed with the script. Brahmi, an early Indian script, is attested in third-century BCE inscriptions. The northern line passed through Gupta and Nagari script stages; Nagari evidence dates to the 7th–8th centuries CE, and Devanagari took a more settled form around the 11th century. In Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali, ऊ keeps the same spelling role while each language supplies its own words and pronunciation.

Why does ऊ look different in another font?

The font changes the outline, not the letter. The same character can look different across fonts and apps, so a code-chart drawing is only one rendering. ऊ is one encoded letter; its shape is not उ with a mark added.

How do I type ऊ?

Use Devanagari phonetic input or an InScript layout. Phonetic input lets you type a Latin-letter approximation and choose the Devanagari suggestion; accepted spellings vary by tool. Windows documents Indic Phonetic layouts alongside InScript, while Google Input Tools offers transliteration suggestions as of 2026-09-05.

With InScript, use the independent-vowel key rather than the key for ू; its position varies by layout.