Feminine Ordinal Indicator

It marks the feminine ending of an abbreviated ordinal. In Spanish, 2.ª stands for segunda (“second”); in Portuguese, 1ª can stand for primeira (“first”). The number gives the position, and ª supplies the feminine ending.

Use it when the abbreviated ordinal modifies a feminine noun: 1.ª edición means “first edition,” and 2.ª vez means “second time.” The masculine counterpart is º.

The period before the raised ending belongs to Spanish abbreviation style: 2.ª. Portuguese commonly writes forms such as 2ª without a period.

Is ª just a superscript a?

It has a specific ordinal role, not a general superscript style. A font may draw it as a small raised a, sometimes underlined, but it is intended for ordinal abbreviations.

Don’t use it as decoration or as a substitute for ordinary superscript formatting. Unicode’s character rules allow ordinal indicators to count as weak matches for their Latin letters in search, so software may match ª with a even though their visual roles differ.

How do I enter ª?

Use your app’s Unicode input or character picker. On Windows, as of 2026, Microsoft Word accepts 00AA followed by Alt+X; Character Map is another Windows route.

On macOS, as of 2026, open Character Viewer with Control-Command-Space and search for “feminine ordinal indicator” or 00AA.