What ׂ means
It gives ש the s sound, not the sh sound.
In Hebrew, this s-reading is called sin. The mark sits at the upper-left of ש; the matching shin dot ׁ sits at the upper-right and marks sh. They are alternatives, never a pair.
The mark belongs to niqqud, the system of points that records vowels and other pronunciation details around Hebrew letters. Tiberian pointing was one of several Jewish reading-mark systems documented in the first millennium CE. In the later Middle Ages, Tiberian signs became dominant even as their original oral reading tradition faded; some communities kept those signs while using Palestinian pronunciation. Babylonian and Palestinian pointing were historically connected neighboring systems, not earlier copies of this exact dot.
This is a niqqud mark for pointed Hebrew; ordinary Hebrew often omits points.
Do not read ׂ by itself; it must attach to ש.
Part of the collection
Who writes ׂ
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Don't confuse it with
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שׂ / שׁ Sin dot vs shin dot: שׂ places the dot on the left and marks s; שׁ places it on the right and marks sh.
Questions people ask
3Can sin dot stand alone?
No. It is a combining mark that attaches to ש, not a separate Hebrew letter.
Why does sin dot merge with holam?
Some renderers merge them. Holam is the Hebrew vowel point for the o sound; it follows the sin dot on שׂ. As of 2026, the two marks can appear as one dot even though the text contains both.
Why does Hebrew leave points out?
Usually. Hebrew commonly omits vowel and pronunciation points, keeping them for liturgical texts and other special uses where pronunciation needs to be shown.
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Collections with ׂ
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How to type or find ׂ
- Search it as
- sin dot · left dot · shin dot · sin vs shin · niqqud · nikud · pointed Hebrew · Hebrew keyboard
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ׂ\05C2Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.