What 〗 means
It closes a visual tag or heading label opened by 〖.
Unlike quotation marks (「…」), which show spoken words or titles, the pair 〖…〗 works like a signpost. In Japanese emails, bulletin boards, and articles, writers place it at the start of a subject line to frame category labels such as 〖お知らせ〗 (Notice) or 〖至急〗 (Urgent) so the reader can scan the topic at a glance.
In print and reference works across Japan and China, the pair also sets off headwords, subheadings, or secondary notes inside an entry, especially when the heavier solid brackets 【…】 are already in use for the main heading. Outside East Asia, people often pick 〖…〗 for social media bios, gaming nicknames, and chat headings because its outlined frame stands out cleanly against plain text.
How does 〖…〗 differ from 【…】?
〖…〗 has hollow, outlined corners where 【…】 is filled in solid.
In Japanese typography, both pairs are called sumitsuki kakko (すみ付き括弧, "corner-filled brackets"). Each bracket looks like a square bracket whose inner corners are filled with a curve, leaving a lens-shaped hollow in the middle—the reason Unicode calls them "lenticular" (lens-shaped). The solid pair 【…】 is the everyday default in Japanese and Chinese; the hollow "white" pair 〖…〗 (sumitsuki kakko shiro in Japanese, 空心方頭括號 in Traditional Chinese) gives a softer highlight or marks a second level of headings.
Like other CJK punctuation, 〗 is a full-width character that takes up a full square cell, with built-in breathing room on its right side. Because of that built-in padding, Unicode's mathematical layout guidelines advise against reusing 〖…〗 as a math bracket in formulas, where it creates uneven gaps.
Practical and tidy in headings, notices, and dictionaries; decorative when framing usernames or bios online.
Always pair it with 〖; a lone 〗 at the end of a label looks like a broken tag.
Don't confuse it with
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Related characters
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Combination ideas
4Worth knowing
- "Lenticular" comes from the Latin lenticula (a lentil or lens): the curved inner stroke against the straight outer back gives the bracket a concave lens profile.
- In traditional vertical Japanese and Chinese text read from top to bottom, 〗 rotates 90 degrees clockwise so its flat back sits at the bottom of the enclosed words.
Questions people ask
3Why is 〗 called a "white lenticular" bracket?
In typography, "white" means hollow or outlined rather than filled with ink, even when rendered in black or dark-mode text. "Lenticular" means lens-shaped, referring to the curved inner edge inside its square outer frame.
Does 〗 mean a quotation?
No. East Asian text uses corner brackets (「…」 and 『…』) for quotes and titles. 〖…〗 is a structural marker used to highlight headings, category tags, and dictionary entries.
Should I use 〖…〗 in mathematical formulas?
No. Unicode classifies 〖 and 〗 as full-width CJK punctuation with built-in character cell padding, which leaves awkward spaces in equations. For double-struck math brackets, use the mathematical white square brackets ⟦…⟧ instead.
More like this
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Collections with 〗
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How to type or find 〗
- Also called
- 終わりすみ付き括弧（白） · すみつきかっこしろ · 白隅付き括弧
- Search it as
- lenticular bracket · white lenticular bracket · sumitsuki kakko · hollow bracket · japanese bracket · chinese bracket · outline bracket · tag bracket
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
〗\3017Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.