What ▩ means
Unicode's lineage runs through KS X 1001, a Korean character standard whose hatched-square set was probably intended for fill patterns. Unicode kept the shapes although their original meanings were unclear; that history explains the pattern, not a fixed message.
Neutral and technical; nearby words supply its meaning, while font and text environment can shift its displayed width.
Do not read a fixed message into the pattern.
Part of collections
Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
4
Square With Horizontal Fill
Same encoded hatched-square series; its fill uses horizontal lines.
Square With Upper Right To Lower Left Fill
Same encoded hatched-square series; its diagonal strokes run from upper right to lower left.
Square With Upper Left To Lower Right Fill
Half of ▩'s mesh: only the lines running from upper left to lower right.
Diagonal Crosshatch Fill
The same diagonal mesh filling the whole text cell, with no square frame.
Combination ideas
2Lattice or mesh pattern, like a window screen.
Both diagonal hatches crossed make the mesh.
Questions people ask
1Why does ▩ 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.
More like this
12
■Black Square
□White Square
▣White Square Containing Black Small Square
◼️Black Medium Square
▧Square With Upper Left To Lower Right Fill
▨Square With Upper Right To Lower Left Fill
▬Black Rectangle
▦Square With Orthogonal Crosshatch Fill
▤Square With Horizontal Fill
▥Square With Vertical Fill
¦Broken Bar
°Degree SignCollections with ▩
2
How to type or find ▩
- Search it as
- crosshatch · diagonal hatch · hatched square · patterned square · textured square
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Windows (Word)
Windows
macOS
HTML
▩CSS
\25A9Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
▩
HTML hex
▩
CSS content
content: "\25A9";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%96%A9
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.