What 침 means
The surrounding phrase decides. 침이 고이다 means saliva gathers; 침을 놓다 means applying an acupuncture needle. 침을 뱉다 means spitting and can express contempt.
Hangul was developed in 1443 and published in 1446 to make Korean easier to learn. Its syllable blocks combine letters; 침 uses ㅊ + ㅣ + ㅁ.
Neutral in phrases; 침을 뱉다 can express contempt.
Alone, 침 does not tell you which sense is meant.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readings침이 고이다
Saliva gathers, often with appetite.
침을 뱉다
Spitting; can express contempt.
침을 놓다
Applying an acupuncture needle.
Questions people ask
1Why does 침 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 침
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType CE68, then Alt+X to get 침.
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 “hangul syllable cim”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType ce68, then Enter or Space.
HTML
침CSS
\CE68How do I type 침?
On the standard Korean 2-set keyboard, press C, L, A; the input method combines ㅊ + ㅣ + ㅁ.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
침
HTML hex
침
CSS content
content: "\CE68";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%EC%B9%A8
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.