Hangul syllable 읏

Alone, it has no dependable one-word reading. Hangul syllables are blocks built from an initial consonant, a vowel, and sometimes a final consonant; 읏 combines ㅇ, ㅡ, and ㅅ. A longer Korean word supplies the meaning, and a message containing only 읏 is too little context to translate reliably. The different vowels separate it from 옷 (“clothes”) and 웃, as in 웃다 (“to laugh”).

Why does 읏 appear in older Korean writing?

읏 follows Hangul’s regular syllable structure. Hangul’s creation and its guide date to 1443–1446; the script represented Korean speech more directly than Chinese characters used for Korean, and the guide explained how to learn and use it. 읏 follows its consonant–vowel–consonant pattern.

In 19th-century Korean, -읏 appears as a suffix in mimetic words—words that echo sounds or portray the feel of an action or state. The suffix made those roots more concrete. A 2022 Seoul cultural listing records 읏짜! as an exertion sound when rising from a chair.

A 1527 primer called Hunmongjahoe explains a link to ㅅ, named 시옷. Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean) had no character ending in the sound 읏, so the primer used 衣, whose Korean word is 옷 (“clothes”), to supply that ending sound. This is a naming workaround, not a meaning for 읏.

How do I type 읏?

Use a Korean composing keyboard and enter ㅇ, ㅡ, ㅅ. On the common 2-set layout, press D, M, then T; the input method joins the initial, vowel, and final into 읏. With Korean composition off, you may get Latin letters or separate jamo instead.

Text can store 읏 as one precomposed Hangul block or as its equivalent jamo sequence. A Korean-capable font shapes the sequence into one block, though component placement can vary; a split display can come from missing composition or font support.