What ︲ means
A dash for text that runs down the page.
Chinese, Japanese and sometimes Korean can be written in vertical columns, read top to bottom and right to left. In that layout a dash has to run along the column, so it stands upright. ︲ is that upright en dash, used for ranges and links between words just as – is in horizontal text.
It was encoded in Unicode's first version to match the Taiwanese character standard CNS 11643, which stored vertical punctuation as separate characters. Today word processors, browsers and e-readers switch to the vertical shape automatically, so new text should simply use –.
Is it the same as the bar?
No: it looks similar but is a different character.
The vertical bar and the fullwidth are lines, not dashes. Using ︲ as a divider in a name or bio may look fine, but search, spellcheck and screen readers treat it as a dash, and some fonts draw it oddly or not at all.
Neutral typesetting character; it carries no tone of its own.
Don't use it as a substitute for in names or links: it is a dash.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
4
Related characters
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Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
2Why did my ︲ turn into –?
Normal behaviour. Many systems normalize compatibility characters, and ︲ is officially the vertical form of –, so it gets converted.
Why does it show as a box?
Your font lacks it. Try a CJK font; or use – in vertical layout instead.
More like this
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How to type or find ︲
- Search it as
- vertical dash · en dash · FE32 · vertical punctuation · short vertical line
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
︲\FE32Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.