What 의 means
It links one noun to the one that follows.
After a noun, 의 makes it modify the next: 나의 책 means “my book.” Within a word, it is one syllable, not “of.”
Hangul blocks join letters: silent ㅇ plus vowel ㅢ. King Sejong created Hangul in 1443 to ease Korean writing; before it, writers adapted Chinese characters for Korean. The 1446 book Hunminjeongeum explained the script’s purpose and principles.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does 의 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 의
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType C758, then Alt+X to get 의.
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 yi”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType c758, then Enter or Space.
HTML
의CSS
\C758Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
의
HTML hex
의
CSS content
content: "\C758";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%EC%9D%98
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.