What ៣ means
It means the number three in Khmer writing. The earliest evidence found for this numeral tradition is in early seventh century Khmer inscriptions. A 683 CE Sambor stele records a Saka date and temple provisions, showing numerals serving dates, quantities, levies, and records.
Khmer script connects to Southern Brahmi through South Indian traditions. Its documented setting runs from inscriptions and temple records to modern standardization. In 2015, Cambodia's Prime Minister's Office recorded a decision to unify Khmer-number use. As of 2026-09-06, no reviewed source establishes another symbolic meaning for ៣ across periods or cultures.
Neutral and literal; font outlines vary because it is text, not emoji artwork.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ៣ 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 ៣
៣\17E3Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.