What ◌ means
It shows where the mark would sit on a base character. Unicode charts use ◌ to show a combining mark's position. Font display for unattached marks varies: software may add ◌, omit it, or shift the mark; a 2021 mobile-keyboard example showed all three. Early Arabic manuscripts used dots for vowels, to distinguish letters, and to mark verse ends; calligraphers measured proportions with dots—a different use from ◌ in charts.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ◌ 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 ◌
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 25CC, then Alt+X to get ◌.
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 “dotted circle”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 25cc, then Enter or Space.
HTML
◌CSS
\25CCKeyboard specimen
For a guide or key, place ◌ before the mark to show it alone.
Text
In text, put the mark after its intended base character.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
◌
HTML hex
◌
CSS content
content: "\25CC";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%97%8C
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.