What ज़ means
Use a Devanagari layout, or enter ज followed by nukta.
A direct key depends on the layout. The decomposed sequence ज + ़ is a recommended spelling of the same letter; it may display as ज़.
Why does ज़ have a dot?
The dot extends ज to write the /z/ sound.
The dot is called a nukta: it marks ज as a different sound, /z/, rather than /j/. This spelling extends Devanagari to represent sounds found in Hindi words borrowed from Persian and Arabic, and in English loans. Other letters use the same dot.
The earliest printed evidence for Devanagari is dated 1667; that is evidence for the broader script, not this exact letter. In the 19th century, language politics increasingly linked Devanagari with Sanskritized Hindi and Urdu with Perso-Arabic writing. Their everyday speech remained close, but Hindi speakers differ in whether they preserve /z/ or pronounce it like ज.
Keeping the dot preserves /z/ and can signal careful attention to a word’s borrowed spelling; dropping it is also common in Hindi.
For names, follow the person’s spelling: adding a dot to sound refined can change the pronunciation.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ज़ 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 ज़
ज़\095BCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.