What 𗁀 means
A Tangut character with the reconstructed reading *ko¹.
The asterisk marks a scholarly reconstruction — Tangut died out centuries ago, leaving no speaker to ask. Entries list *ko¹ but, as of 2026, assign no English definition; the character takes its meaning from the Tangut word or passage around it.
Why was the Tangut script created?
An emperor had it invented around 1036 to build a state.
Western Xia, the Tangut state on China's northwestern frontier, commissioned the script under its first emperor Jingzong — official writing distinct from Song-dynasty China and a vehicle for a Tangut Buddhist canon.
Use outgrew religion: a manuscript from Khara-Khoto, a ruined Tangut city, probably 12th or early 13th century, preserves a Tangut translation of secular Chinese political and moral writing. The Khitan next door had built a script first; Tangut followed, reshaping Chinese-style strokes into characters of its own.
Why does 𗁀 show as a box?
The font is missing — the character is fine.
Few fonts cover Tangut; with none installed, a browser or app draws a hollow box — tofu — instead. The character is intact; only the ink is missing.
A page can ship a Tangut web font, so 𗁀 may render in a browser yet vanish in a chat app; as of 2026, most applications still need one installed.
Scholarly territory — Tangut history, linguistics, fonts. In casual messages it usually arrives as a box.
A blank box means a missing font, not a different symbol.
Who writes 𗁀
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Related characters
3
Questions people ask
3Does 𗁀 have a Chinese meaning?
No. It only looks Chinese — 𗁀 is Tangut script, and its listed reading *ko¹ has no fixed English meaning as of 2026.
Is the Tangut script still used?
No. Western Xia fell in 1227 and the script died out; today it survives in manuscripts, inscriptions, and scholarship.
Why is 𗁀 blank in one app but visible in another?
Fonts. A web font may render Tangut in the browser while an app without one falls back to a box.
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How to type or find 𗁀
- Search it as
- tangut · tangut script · tangut character · tangut letter · tangut ko · tangut font · tangut input · tangut language
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𗁀\17040Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.