What ⎝ means
It forms the bottom of a tall left parenthesis.
Older math fonts built tall fences from upper hooks, middle extensions, and lower hooks like this one.
Why does ⎝ look incomplete?
Because it is one segment of a larger bracket.
Fallback fonts can shift its size or alignment beside other pieces. Use a complete opening parenthesis in ordinary text.
Technical typesetting piece; uncommon alone.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ⎝ 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 ⎝
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 239D, then Alt+X to get ⎝.
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 “left parenthesis lower hook”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 239d, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⎝CSS
\239DCSS
CSS escape for ⎝: `\239D` (add a space if the next character is a hex digit).
JSON
JSON strings accept `\u239D`.
HTML
HTML entity: `⎝`.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⎝
HTML hex
⎝
CSS content
content: "\239D";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%8E%9D
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.