What ⾹ means
It is a dictionary radical and filing label. In a radical-and-stroke index, ⾹ marks the section for entries filed under 香; if your editor supports hexadecimal Unicode entry, use U2FB9.
The Kangxi Character Dictionary, completed in 1716, grouped entries by radical and then by the strokes remaining after it.
The 香/薌 word-family appears in Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, writing on bone and shell used for divination. In later Chinese usage, 香 covers fragrance and incense, and can praise a person or thing as renowned; 芳 belongs to the same vocabulary of fragrant plants.
Why is ⾹ different from 香?
⾹ is the radical symbol; 香 is the ordinary Han character. Their printed forms can be hard to tell apart, but they have different jobs: ⾹ marks a category in indexes and character references, while 香 is used as a word or word component. Unicode encodes them separately.
Use 香 in an ordinary Chinese word about fragrance or incense; reserve ⾹ for a radical index or a technical discussion of character organization.
How do I type ⾹?
Use hexadecimal Unicode entry if your editor supports it. The value is U2FB9.
The available steps depend on your editor or input method.
Technical and reference-oriented; ⾹ marks a dictionary filing category, not an ordinary Chinese word.
Use 香 in ordinary Chinese words; reserve ⾹ for indexes and character references.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⾹ 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.
More like this
10
How to type or find ⾹
- Also called
- fragrant radical · xiang radical · 香部
- Search it as
- radical form of 香 · ⾹ vs 香 · 2fb9 · kangxi radical
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⾹\2FB9Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.