What ⸱ means
It marks the boundary between words. Readers treat it as punctuation, not as part of either word.
Formal writing in West Semitic languages, including Canaanite and Hebrew, used word dividers from the mid-2nd millennium BCE to the early 1st millennium BCE; the marks shifted from strokes to dots.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsAvestan text
In Avestan, the language of Zoroastrian sacred texts, dots can divide words or compounds.
Samaritan text
Samaritan writing continues an older word-divider custom also found in Canaanite and Hebrew texts.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions 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 2E31, 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 “word separator middle dot”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2e31, then Enter or Space.
HTML
⸱CSS
\2E31Microsoft Word
As of 2026, type 2E31 in Microsoft Word and press Alt+X. Display depends on the selected font.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
⸱
HTML hex
⸱
CSS content
content: "\2E31";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%B8%B1
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.