What ₎ means
A parenthetical expression written in subscript. The Unicode archive traces it to the XCCS standard (1980) and an IBM character specification (circa 1988).
Unicode retained it to convert older data one-to-one, alongside its matching opener ₍. Dedicated subscript symbols suit short notation; use styling or markup for arbitrary expressions.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions 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.
How to type ₎
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 208E, then Alt+X to get ₎.
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 “subscript right parenthesis”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 208e, then Enter or Space.
HTML
₎CSS
\208EOCLC Connexion
In the OCLC Connexion client, press Alt + ].
Markup
For arbitrary expressions, use styling or markup instead of assembling dedicated subscript characters.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
₎
HTML hex
₎
CSS content
content: "\208E";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%82%8E
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.