What ˣ means
Use ˣ as a character; the SIL IPA keyboard maps x to it.
A character picker can also find it under superscript x or raised x. Rich-text superscript styling only changes an ordinary x’s appearance; it does not make this distinct character.
What does ˣ mean in IPA?
It marks a voiceless velar-fricative release after a consonant.
A velar fricative is a rough airflow sound made at the back of the mouth without vocal-cord vibration. In IPA, ordinary x represents that sound by itself; ˣ marks it as the release of the consonant before it.
The IPA’s 1949 Principles allowed small index letters to show fine sound distinctions.
What does the raised x mean in Finnish?
It marks a word that may trigger boundary gemination.
As of 2026, Finnish linguistic notation uses raised x after a word to show that the next word may begin with a doubled consonant, or with a brief closure in the throat before a vowel. The mark reflects a consonant no longer written at the word edge but still shaping connected speech; the convention varies by region.
Specialist and technical; its tone comes from the notation system, not the raised shape.
A raised x has no single reading; check the notation around it.
Drift: A separate World War I-era Royal Navy logbook convention used raised x after a number as shorthand for yards.
Who writes ˣ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsThe consonant releases into a voiceless velar-fricative sound.
Don't confuse it with
3
Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
2Why did ˣ turn into x?
Compatibility normalization can do that: NFKC or NFKD may reduce ˣ to ordinary x. Preserve it when the modifier distinction matters.
Is ˣ the same as a math superscript x?
No. ˣ is a separate character used in linguistic notation; a mathematical exponent is raised by mathematical layout or formatting.
More like this
12
Collections with ˣ
2
How to type or find ˣ
- Also called
- raised x · superscript x · x-morpheme
- Search it as
- IPA · modifier x · velar fricative release · Finnish boundary gemination
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ˣ\02E3Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.