What ⁇ means
It represents a pair; context determines what that pair judges.
In chess annotation, ?? follows a move the annotator considers a serious mistake. In linguistic acceptability judgments (how well formed a sentence is), ?? before an example means it is less acceptable than one marked with a single ?.
Specialized punctuation; some fonts lack ⁇, so plain ?? has wider support.
Don't confuse it with
1??
?? has two characters; ⁇ is one, mapped compatibly to the pair.
Questions 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 2047, 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 “double question mark”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2047, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⁇CSS
\2047Windows Word
Type 2047, then Alt+X (as of 2026).
Linux GTK
Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2047, then Space or Enter (as of 2026).
macOS
Unicode Hex Input: hold Option and type 2047 (as of 2026).
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⁇
HTML hex
⁇
CSS content
content: "\2047";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%81%87
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.