What ⅱ means
It means two in lowercase Roman-numeral form.
Roman numerals grew from counting marks in ancient Italy, though their exact early development remains uncertain. Lowercase forms came later with Latin writing; medieval Latin records show two as ii or ij, with a final i sometimes written as j. Unicode keeps ⅱ for compatibility with East Asian text standards; the glyph stays upright in vertical text. For most prose, Unicode recommends two Latin letters, ii.
Formal and typographic.
Don't confuse it with
1ii
ii vs ⅱ: two Latin letters versus one numeral character.
Questions people ask
1Why does ⅱ 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 ⅱ
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 2171, then Alt+X to get ⅱ.
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 “small roman numeral two”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2171, then Enter or Space.
HTML
ⅱCSS
\2171Microsoft Word
As of 2026, type 2171, then press Alt+X.
HTML
Use ⅱ or ⅱ.
Plain text
For most prose, write ii with two Latin letters.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
ⅱ
HTML hex
ⅱ
CSS content
content: "\2171";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%85%B1
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.