What ៨ means
Because Khmer writing has its own numeral shapes. Khmer numerals appear in a carved record at Prasat Bayang by AD 604. A stone inscription at Sambor from AD 683 records a date and gifts to a temple.
Older Khmer notation had separate signs for 10, 20, and 100; later numbers used position to show value. Khmer writing developed from Brahmi, an ancient South Asian script. Fonts can draw ៨ with different details while preserving the same character.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsAs the whole number
Eight.
Inside a longer number
Its position sets the value: units, tens, hundreds, and so on.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ៨ 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 ៨
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 17E8, then Alt+X to get ៨.
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 “khmer digit eight”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 17e8, then Enter or Space.
HTML
៨CSS
\17E8Khmer keyboard
On Keyman’s Khmer Angkor layout, switch to Khmer input and press the 8 key to enter ៨.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
៨
HTML hex
៨
CSS content
content: "\17E8";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E1%9F%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.