What 󠄱 means
VS66 by itself has no reading. After a base ideograph, it can select a registered CJK glyph variant in an ideographic variation sequence (IVS). The exact base-selector pair requests a registered form, not a general font style.
This digital mechanism's proposal record dates to 2003; the Ideographic Variation Database (IVD), a registry of supported pairs, was introduced in 2006. It serves publishers, scholars, and government systems that need to preserve regional or historical forms beyond one default glyph.
Registered variants are different drawings of the same ideograph; the base character keeps its reading and dictionary meaning. The selector number alone does not identify a form: only a registered base-selector pair specifies one.
why is VS66 invisible
It is designed to leave no visible mark. With a complete pair, a supporting font can show the registered variant. If the pair is unsupported or unregistered, the base character displays normally and the selector is ignored.
Some Chinese, Japanese, or Korean input methods may offer glyph variants as choices. In UTF-16, VS66 is stored as two code units called a surrogate pair; string length or slicing can split them, so keep both units and the preceding base character together.
Specialist and technical: an IVS signals that the exact ideograph form matters, especially in publishing, scholarship, or administration.
A blank selector is expected; it only works after its base character.
Part of the collection
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsNo reading: without a preceding base character, the selector is invisible and normally ignored.
Don't confuse it with
2VS15 ︎ VS15 vs VS66: the first requests text presentation for eligible symbols; VS66 selects a registered ideographic glyph variant.
VS16 ️ VS16 vs VS66: the first requests emoji presentation for eligible symbols; VS66 selects a registered ideographic glyph variant.
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.
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How to type or find 󠄱
- Also called
- VS66
- Search it as
- e0131 · ivs · ivd · ideographic variation sequence · kanji variant · invisible selector · font glyph variant
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
󠄱\E0131Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.