What ፥ means
In Ethiopic prose, it usually serves as a comma. As of 2026-09-06, specialist Ethiopic layout guidance treats ፥ and ፣ as equivalent comma glyphs, while some descriptions still call ፥ a colon. In Ge'ez and religious Amharic writing, it can signal an ecclesiastical punctuation convention.
The Ethiopic script appears in inscriptions from the second/third centuries CE. Early Ethiopian inscriptions divided words with a vertical bar; later manuscript writing used dot-based dividers, including the colon-like wordspace. These marks made boundaries visible in continuous writing.
Why does ፥ appear in a Bible reference?
In a Bible reference, it marks the break between citation parts. A reference such as ማቴ4፥23 places the mark between chapter and verse. Outside citations, follow the document’s house style: Ethiopic marks, spaces, and Western punctuation do not have one universal role.
Religious or classical in effect; it can signal that the writer follows an Ethiopic punctuation convention.
The English label “colon” does not settle how ፥ functions in an Ethiopic text.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
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 ፥
፥\1365Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.