🔍

Loading symbols…

››

⦙

dotted fence

Dotted fence

⦙ is a mathematical boundary mark made of four vertically stacked dots. Called a dotted fence, it acts as a delimiter: a sign that separates or bounds parts of mathematical notation. Its shape has no opening or closing direction.

Text symbol

What ⦙ means

A mathematical fence marks the boundary of an expression.

Parentheses are familiar examples of mathematical fences: their shapes distinguish an opening from a closing. The dotted fence has the same shape on either side. The word “fence” describes its boundary-marking role, not a calculation to perform.

A 2000 proposal for the international character standard classified ⦙ as a nondirectional delimiter, or “fence post”. It was part of an effort to support mathematical, scientific and technical publishing and document exchange.

Part of collections

Don't confuse it with

⋮

Vertical Ellipsis

The vertical ellipsis has three dots and indicates continuation, for example down a column in a matrix. ⦙ has four dots and is a delimiter.

⁞

Vertical Four Dots

Vertical four dots, a punctuation mark; a stacked dotted line that can pass for the dotted fence in plain text.

⸽

Vertical Six Dots

Vertical six dots, a punctuation mark; the same stacked-dot look, mixed up in running text.

Questions people ask

Why does ⦙ show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Miscellaneous Mathematical Symbols-B block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.

How to type or find ⦙

Search it as: four vertical dots · four-dot symbol · math delimiter
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

Windows (Word)

⎇Alt+XType 2999, then AltX 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 fence”.

Linux

⎈Ctrl+⇧Shift+UType 2999, then Enter or Space.

HTML

⦙

CSS

\2999

Codes and encoding1 code points

HTML decimal

⦙

HTML hex

⦙

CSS content

content: "\2999";

Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.

URL encoded

%E2%A6%99

On screen

Code points

JS .length

UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

Maths & numbers1,835 symbols

1️⃣📏📐✖️➕➖➗🟰♾️#️⃣*️⃣0️⃣