What ɡ means
It represents the voiced velar plosive. That is the sound at the start of English “go”: the back of your tongue closes against the soft palate and releases while your vocal folds vibrate. “Velar” names the place; “plosive” means a full closure and release; “voiced” means the vocal folds vibrate.
An IPA transcription uses ɡ to record that sound, not the spelling. Ordinary g can represent other sounds too, as in English “giant.”
ɡ has an open-tail, single-storey shape: one main loop, without a closed lower loop. Ordinary g is another character; fonts may draw it single-storey or double-storey.
Can I type ɡ in any app?
Use Unicode U+0261 in an app with Unicode input. This is a different character from ordinary g, even when a font makes their shapes look alike.
HTML accepts ɡ or ɡ. In source code, use \u0261 in languages that support that escape.
In Microsoft Word, enter 0261 and press Alt+X; this method works as of 2026.
Technical: using ɡ signals phonetic transcription, usually IPA.
Replacing it with ordinary g changes the encoded character.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ɡ 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 ɡ
ɡ\0261Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.