🔍

Loading symbols…

››

modifier letter centred left half ring

Centred left half-ring

˓ is a pronunciation mark meaning “use less lip rounding” for the sound before it. It belongs to phonetic notation, which writes down how speech sounds. This half-ring stands beside a letter; the modern International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses the related mark underneath it.

Text symbol

What ˓ means

Round your lips less for the preceding sound.

Rounding means drawing the lips into a rounded shape. ˓ asks for less of that rounding than the sound symbol normally indicates. It does not necessarily mean opening your mouth wider, and it does not add another sound.

Why does ˓ sit beside the letter?

It is a separate character, not an attached mark.

˓ takes its own place after the sound symbol. The combining half-ring attaches underneath the preceding letter instead. Its dotted circle is only a placeholder showing where a letter would go.

For modern IPA transcription, use the combining form. When reproducing a text that uses ˓, keep that character: the two express the same adjustment but are different text characters.

A technical pronunciation instruction in phonetic transcription.

Part of collections

ᶑ

Rare IPA Symbols

IPA Phonetic Symbols

Don't confuse it with

Modifier Letter Left Half Ring

The raised half-ring represents Arabic ʿayn or Hebrew ʿayin in Latin transliteration. It is a different character with a different job.

Modifier Letter Centred Right Half Ring

The matching right half-ring indicates more lip rounding: the opposite instruction.

Worth knowing

The 1926 IPA chart described this lip setting as “lips more spread”: an older way of expressing the less-rounded instruction.

How to type or find ˓

Search it as: phonetic half-ring · less rounded · IPA · left half ring · 02D3
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

Windows (Word)

⎇Alt+XType 02D3, then AltX 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 “modifier letter centred left half ring”.

Linux

⎈Ctrl+⇧Shift+UType 02d3, then Enter or Space.

HTML

˓

CSS

\02D3

Character picker

In a Unicode character picker, select U02D3. Check that you chose ˓, the separate half-ring, rather than a combining mark.

Codes and encoding1 code points

HTML decimal

HTML hex

CSS content

content: "\02D3";

Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.

URL encoded

%CB%93

On screen

Code points

JS .length

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

Accents & marks659 symbols

^`¨¯´¸ʰ ʱ ʲ ʳ ʴ ʵ