What 󠄘 means
It requests a registered alternate shape of the preceding Han character.
VS41 has no meaning by itself. It must follow a Han character in an ideographic variation sequence (IVS): a character followed by a selector that requests a particular glyph shape. The selector number alone does not identify that shape; the exact pair and its registered collection do.
These sequences let plain text preserve a specific character form when choosing another font or using rich-text styling is not enough. This matters in Japanese personal and place names, official records, and publishing, where distinct accepted forms can share one character identity. The mechanism was encoded in Unicode in 2003. The Adobe-Japan1 collection began registration in 2007; Hanyo-Denshi followed in 2010.
Why does VS41 disappear or fail to change the glyph?
It has no standalone drawing, and fonts support exact sequences.
A font needs a mapping for that exact base-plus-selector pair. Without one, it can display the base character's default form, so the requested distinction disappears. An unregistered pair is not reliable for text exchange; when a specific form matters, use a registered sequence and a font that supports it.
Its use signals that a particular Han glyph form must be preserved, especially in Japanese names, records, or publishing.
Alone, it sends no visible character or message.
Part of the collection
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsNo visible symbol or standalone message; it is a selector without a base.
Related characters
1
Combination ideas
1Questions people ask
2Why does VS41 not change the glyph?
It may be unsupported. The exact base-plus-selector pair may not be registered, or the font may lack that mapping; the base can then render in its default form.
Can I use VS41 after any character?
No. It belongs in a registered ideographic variation sequence after its paired Han character; the selector number has no universal meaning.
More like this
8
How to type or find 󠄘
- Also called
- VS41
- Search it as
- ivs · ivd · u+e0118 · ideographic variation sequence · kanji variation · 邉󠄘 · hanyo-denshi
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
󠄘\E0118Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.