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ʃ

latin small letter esh

Latin Small Letter Esh

52/96

ʃ is the IPA esh, the symbol for the “sh” sound in ship, shoe and hush. You meet it in pronunciation guides and linguistics, not ordinary spelling. Its curl can pass for an integral sign or long s, so check the surrounding text.

Text symbol

What ʃ means

It represents the voiceless “sh” sound. In English that is the start of ship and shoe and the end of hush. IPA and dictionary pronunciation guides use esh to show that one sound directly, instead of trusting spellings like sh, ch or ti.

In transcription, ʃ records pronunciation, not spelling. One sound can hide behind several spellings, and one spelling can stand for several sounds.

Why does ʃ look like an integral sign?

It is a phonetic letter, not math. Its shape grew from a cursive long s and can come close to in some fonts. In an equation does calculus; in a pronunciation guide ʃ spells out the “sh” consonant.

IPA fonts do not draw every curve alike. Weight and curl shift between fonts, so let the context decide: math problem or pronunciation help. Copy it from the palette above to keep the exact character.

Technical and educational: it signals pronunciation, linguistics, or language learning.

In math, is calculus; in pronunciation, ʃ is the “sh” sound.

Part of the collection

ə
IPA Phonetic Symbols
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Who writes ʃ

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Don't confuse it with

3
∫
Integral
The integral sign belongs to calculus; ʃ appears in phonetic transcription.
ſ
Latin Small Letter Long S
The long s is a historical letterform; ʃ specifically writes the “sh” sound in IPA.
ʂ
Latin Small Letter S With Hook
ʂ marks a retroflex fricative with the tongue curled back, not the ordinary “sh” sound.

Questions people ask

2

Is ʃ the same as sh?

Yes, for the sound. “Sh” is ordinary spelling; ʃ is the phonetic symbol for that pronunciation.

Is ʃ used in normal English spelling?

No. English writes the sound with sh, ch or ti; ʃ belongs mainly to pronunciation notation.

Collections with ʃ

1
ツKaomoji Symbols140 symbols

How to type or find ʃ

Also called
esh · IPA sh · sh sound symbol
Search it as
ipa · sh · phonetic · pronunciation · integral · long s
Shows up in
Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Windows (Word)
⎇Alt+XType 0283, then AltX to get ʃ.
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 “latin small letter esh”.
Linux
⎈Ctrl+⇧Shift+UType 0283, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ʃ
CSS
\0283
Copy
Copy ʃ from the palette above when you need the exact IPA character.
Unicode
Use your editor's Unicode entry method for 0283, then confirm the displayed glyph.
Keyboard layout
Some unofficial English International layouts map ʃ through an AltGr shortcut; availability depends on the layout.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ʃ
HTML hex
ʃ
CSS content
content: "\0283";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%CA%83
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
2
UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

1

Latin letters1,379 symbols

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