Unicode subscripts and superscripts

1. REDIRECT Template:Contains special characters

Template:DMCA Unicode has subscripted and superscripted versions of a number of characters including a full set of Arabic numerals. These characters allow any polynomial, chemical and certain other equations to be represented in plain text without using any form of markup like HTML or TeX.

The World Wide Web Consortium and the Unicode Consortium have made recommendations on the choice between using markup and using superscript and subscript characters:

When used in mathematical context (MathML) it is recommended to consistently use style markup for superscripts and subscripts [...] However, when super and sub-scripts are to reflect semantic distinctions, it is easier to work with these meanings encoded in text rather than markup, for example, in phonetic or phonemic transcription.

Uses

The difference between superscript/subscript and numerator/denominator glyphs. In many popular computer fonts the Unicode "superscript" and "subscript" characters are actually numerator and denominator glyphs.

The intended use when these characters were added to Unicode was to produce true superscripts and subscripts so that chemical and algebraic formulas could be written without markup. Thus Template:Char (using a subscript 2 character) is supposed to be identical to Template:Char (with subscript markup).

In reality, many fonts that include these characters ignore the Unicode definition, and instead design the digits for mathematical numerator and denominator glyphs, which are aligned with the cap line and the baseline, respectively. When used with the solidus or the Fraction Slash, they produce an almost typographically correct diagonal fraction, such as Template:Charfor the Template:Char glyph. Super and subscript markup does not produce a correct fraction (compare markup Template:Char or Template:Char with precomposed Template:Char). The change also makes the superscript letters useful for ordinal indicators, more closely matching the ª and º characters.

Unicode intended that diagonal fractions be rendered by a different mechanism: the Unicode fraction slash U+2044 is visually similar to the solidus, but when used with the ordinary digits (not the superscripts and subscripts), it instructs the layout system that a fraction such as Template:Char is to be rendered using automatic glyph substitution. User-end support was quite poor for a number of years, but fonts, browsers, word processors, desktop publishing software and others increasingly support the intended Unicode behavior. This browser and your default font render the sequence as Template:Char.

Superscripts and subscripts block

The most common superscript digits (1, 2, and 3) were included in ISO-8859-1 and were therefore carried over into those code points in the Latin-1 range of Unicode. The remainder were placed along with basic arithmetical symbols, and later some Latin subscripts, in a dedicated block at U+2070 to U+209F. The table below shows these characters together. Each superscript or subscript character is preceded by a baseline Template:Char to show the height of subscripting/superscripting.

Six code points in the "Superscripts and Subscripts" block are unassigned, and remain available for future characters. As of November 2024, three of these (209D, 209E, and 209F) were provisionally assigned to new subscript characters, namely Latin lowercase Template:Char, Template:Char, and Template:Char.

Unicode characters

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+00Bx			x²	x³						x¹
U+207x	x⁰	xⁱ			x⁴	x⁵	x⁶	x⁷	x⁸	x⁹	x⁺	x⁻	x⁼	x⁽	x⁾	xⁿ
U+208x	x₀	x₁	x₂	x₃	x₄	x₅	x₆	x₇	x₈	x₉	x₊	x₋	x₌	x₍	x₎
U+209x	xₐ	xₑ	xₒ	xₓ	xₔ	xₕ	xₖ	xₗ	xₘ	xₙ	xₚ	xₛ	xₜ

  Not yet assigned

  Other characters from Latin-1 not related to super- or sub-scripts

Other superscript and subscript characters

Unicode also includes codepoints for subscript and superscript characters that are intended for semantic usage, in the following blocks:

Superscript

• The Latin-1 Supplement block contains the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators Template:Char and Template:Char.
• The Latin Extended-C block contains one superscript, Template:Char.
• The Latin Extended-D block contains seven superscripts: Template:Char.
• The Latin Extended-E block contains five superscripts: Template:Char.
• The Latin Extended-F block is entirely superscript IPA letters: Template:Char.
• The Spacing Modifier Letters block has superscripted letters and symbols used for phonetic transcription: Template:Char.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several superscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA Template:Char, Greek Template:Char, Cyrillic Template:Char, other Template:Char. These are intended to indicate secondary articulation.
• The Phonetic Extensions Supplement block has several more: Latin/IPA Template:Char, Greek Template:Char.
• The Cyrillic Extended-B block contains two Cyrillic superscripts: Template:Char.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block contains many Cyrillic superscripts: Template:Char.
• The Georgian block contains one superscripted Mkhedruli letter: Template:Char.
• The Kanbun block has superscripted annotation characters used in Japanese copies of Classical Chinese texts: Template:Char.
• The Tifinagh block has one superscript letter : Template:Char.
• The Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and its Extended blocks contain several mostly consonant-only letters to indicate syllable coda called Finals, along with some characters that indicate syllable medial known as Medials: Main block Template:Char; Extended block: Template:Char.

Combining superscript

• The Combining Diacritical Marks block contains medieval superscript letter diacritics. These letters are written directly above other letters appearing in medieval Germanic manuscripts, and so these glyphs do not include spacing, for example uͤ. They are shown here over the dotted circle placeholder ◌: Template:Char.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains three combining insular letters for the Middle English Ormulum, Template:Char.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains additional medieval superscript letter diacritics, enough to complete the basic lowercase Latin alphabet except for Template:Char, Template:Char and Template:Char, a few small capitals and ligatures (Template:Char), and additional letters: Template:Char, Greek Template:Char.
• The Cyrillic Extended-A and -B blocks contains multiple medieval superscript letter diacritics, enough to complete the basic lowercase Cyrillic alphabet used in Church Slavonic texts, also includes an additional ligature (ст): Template:Char.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block has one additional combining character, that being і: Template:Char.

Subscript

• The Latin Extended-C block contains one subscript, Template:Char.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several subscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA Template:Char and Greek Template:Char.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block also contains many Cyrillic subscripts: Template:Char.

Combining subscript

• The Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains a combining subscript: Template:Char.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains two combining letters for linguistic transcriptions of Scots, Template:Char.

Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and IPA tables

A superscript small-cap W may be distinct from a superscript lowercase w in italic typeface, as in this phonetic notation.

Consolidated, the Unicode standard contains superscript and subscript versions of a subset of Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters. Here they are arranged in alphabetical order for comparison (or for copy and paste convenience). Since these characters appear in different Unicode ranges, they may not appear to be the same size or position due to font substitution by the browser. Shaded cells mark petite capitals that are not very distinct from minuscules in Roman typeface, but they may be distinct in italic typeface, as is used in some phonetic notation.

Little punctuation is encoded. Parentheses are shown in the basic superscript block above, and the exclamation mark Template:Angbr IPA is shown in the IPA table below. In a supporting font, a question mark may be created with a superscript gelded question mark and a combining dot below: Template:Angbr IPA.

Basic Latin modifier letters

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Superscript capital	ᴬ	ᴮ	ꟲ	ᴰ	ᴱ	ꟳ	ᴳ	ᴴ	ᴵ	ᴶ	ᴷ	ᴸ	ᴹ	ᴺ	ᴼ	ᴾ	ꟴ	ᴿ	꟱	ᵀ	ᵁ	ⱽ	ᵂ	–	–	–
Superscript small capital	*	𐞄		*	*	–	𐞒	𐞖	ᶦ	–	𞀹§	ᶫ	𞀻§	ᶰ		*	–	𐞪		𞁀§	ᶸ				𐞲
Superscript minuscule	ᵃ	ᵇ	ᶜ	ᵈ	ᵉ	ᶠ	ᵍ	ʰ	ⁱ	ʲ	ᵏ	ˡ	ᵐ	ⁿ	ᵒ	ᵖ	𐞥	ʳ	ˢ	ᵗ	ᵘ	ᵛ	ʷ	ˣ	ʸ	ᶻ
Overscript small capital	–	◌ⷡ §		–	–	–	◌ᷛ	◌ⷩ §	–	–	◌ⷦ §	◌ᷞ	◌ᷟ	◌ᷡ		–	–	◌ᷢ		◌ⷮ §	–				–
Overscript minuscule	◌ͣ	◌ᷨ	◌ͨ	◌ͩ	◌ͤ	◌ᷫ	◌ᷚ	◌ͪ	◌ͥ	–	◌ᷜ	◌ᷝ	◌ͫ	◌ᷠ	◌ͦ	◌ᷮ	–	◌ͬ	◌ᷤ	◌ͭ	◌ͧ	◌ͮ	◌ᷱ	◌ͯ	◌ꙷ §	◌ᷦ
Subscript minuscule	ₐ	–	𞁞§	–	ₑ	–	–	ₕ	ᵢ	ⱼ	ₖ	ₗ	ₘ	ₙ	ₒ	ₚ	–	ᵣ	ₛ	ₜ	ᵤ	ᵥ	*	ₓ	*	*
Underscript minuscule																		◌᷊					◌ᪿ

* Superscript versions of petite capital A, D, E and P, of ƀ, and subscript versions of w, y and z are scheduled to be released with version 18 of the Unicode Standard.

^§ Cyrillic 𞀹 𞀻 𞁀, ◌ⷡ ◌ⷩ ◌ⷦ ◌ⷮ ◌ꙷ and 𞁞 might be substituted for these letters.

Additional Latin modifier letters

	Æ	Ä	Ƀ	Ǝ	Ə	Ħ	ꬸ	Ŋ	Ƞ	Ö	Ü
Superscript capital	ᴭ	(ᴬ̈)	ᴯ	ᴲ		ꟸ		ᴻ		(ᴼ̈)	(ᵁ̈)
Superscript minuscule	𐞃	(ᵃ̈)	*	ᵊ		𐞕		ᵑ	*	(ᵒ̈)	(ᵘ̈)
Overscript minuscule	◌ᷔ	◌ᷲ		◌ᷪ			◌ᷬ			◌ᷳ	◌ᷴ
Subscript minuscule				ₔ

Some of these superscript capitals are small caps in the source documents in the Unicode proposals. Superscript Ä, Ö, Ü (in parentheses) are composed of the base letter and a combining tréma.

Except for the iota subscript, which has use in Greek text, the modifier Greek letters are intended as phonetic characters in Latin-script text. Shaded cells are indistinguishable from Latin letters, and so would not be expected to have distinctive use in Latin text or to be supported by Unicode.

Greek modifier letters (intended for use in Latin-script text)

	Α	Β	Γ	Δ	Ε	Ζ	Η	Θ	Ι	Κ	Λ	Μ	Ν	Ξ	Ο	Π	Ρ	Σ	Τ	Υ	Φ	Χ	Ψ	Ω
Superscript minuscule	ᵅ	ᵝ	ᵞ	ᵟ	ᵋ		*	ᶿ	ᶥ											ᶹ	ᵠ	ᵡ	*	*
Overscript minuscule	◌ᷧ	◌ᷩ																						◌᫇
Subscript minuscule		ᵦ	ᵧ						ͺ								ᵨ				ᵩ	ᵪ
Underscript minuscule									◌ͅ															◌̫

* Superscript versions of Greek psi and omega are scheduled for version 18 of the Unicode Standard.

Cyrillic modifier characters are intended for use in Cyrillic text.

Russian modifier letters

	А	Б	В	Г	Д	Е	Ж	З	И	К	Л	М	Н	О	П	Р	С	Т	У	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Superscript	𞀰	𞀱	𞀲	𞀳	𞀴	𞀵	𞀶	𞀷	𞀸	𞀹	𞀺	𞀻	ᵸ	𞀼	𞀽	𞀾	𞀿	𞁀	𞁁	𞁂	𞁃	𞁄	𞁅	𞁆	–	ꚜ	𞁇	ꚝ	𞁈	𞁉	–
Overscript	◌ⷶ	◌ⷠ	◌ⷡ	◌ⷢ	◌ⷣ	◌ⷷ	◌ⷤ	◌ⷥ	◌ꙵ	◌ⷦ	◌ⷧ	◌ⷨ	◌ⷩ	◌ⷪ	◌ⷫ	◌ⷬ	◌ⷭ	◌ⷮ	◌ꙷ	◌ꚞ	◌ⷯ	◌ⷰ	◌ⷱ	◌ⷲ	◌ⷳ	◌ꙸ	◌ꙹ	◌ꙺ	–	◌ⷻ	–
Subscript	𞁑	𞁒	𞁓	𞁔	𞁕	𞁖	𞁗	𞁘	𞁙	𞁚	𞁛	–	–	𞁜	𞁝	–	𞁞	–	𞁟	𞁠	𞁡	𞁢	𞁣	𞁤	–	𞁥	𞁦	–	–	–	–

Additional modern Cyrillic modifier letters

	Ә	Ґ	Є	Ѕ	Ꚉ	І	Ї	Ј	Ө	Ҫ	Ү	Ұ	Џ	Ӏ
Superscript	𞁋				𞁊	𞁌	𞁌̈	𞁍	𞁎	𞁫	𞁏	𞁭		𞁐
Overscript			◌ꙴ			◌𞂏	◌ꙶ
Subscript		𞁧		𞁩		𞁨	𞁨̈						𞁪

Additional medieval Cyrillic modifier letters

	Ꙋ	Ѡ	Ѣ	Ꙗ	Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѭ	Ѳ	Ꙑ
Superscript										𞁬
Overscript	◌ⷹ	◌ꙻ	◌ⷺ	◌ⷼ	◌ꚟ	◌ⷽ	◌ⷾ	◌ⷿ	◌ⷴ

Superscript and subscript ё, ї, й, ў etc. are handled with diacritics, ⟨𞀵̈ 𞁌̈ 𞀸̆ 𞁁̆⟩ etc. Many of the Cyrillic characters were added to the Cyrillic Extended-D block, which was added to the free Gentium and Andika fonts with version 6.2 in February 2023.

See also Unicode Small caps, Fullwidths, and Mathematical alphanumerics.

Superscript IPA

The Latin Extended-F block was created for the remaining superscript IPA letters. They are supported by the free Gentium and Andika fonts. Additional superscript characters for historical and para-IPA letters are scheduled to be released with version 18 of the Unicode Standard in 2026.

Consonant letters

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA and extIPA consonant letters are as follows. The entire Latin Extended-F block is dedicated to superscript IPA. Characters for sounds with secondary articulation are set off in parentheses and placed below the letter for the primary articulation. Asterisks mark superscript characters scheduled for release with Unicode 18 in September 2026.

Superscript variants of IPA, extIPA and para-IPA consonants, with their Unicode code points

	BiTemplate:Shylabial		LabioTemplate:Shydental		Dental		Alveolar		PostTemplate:Shyalveolar		RetroTemplate:Shyflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		PharynTemplate:Shygeal		Glottal
Nasal		1D50		1DAC				207F () *				1DAF		1DAE () *		1D51		1DB0
Plosive	1D56	1D47	*	*			1D57 () 1DB5	1D48 () *			107AF	1078B	1D9C () *	1DA1 () *	1D4F	/ 1DA2/1D4D	107A5	10792	107B3		02C0
Affricate							107AC	10787	107AE () *	1078A () *	107AD () *	10788 () *	() 107AB	() 10789
Fricative	1DB2	1D5D	1DA0	1D5B	1DBF	1D9E	02E2 () *	1DBB () *	1DB4 () *	1DBE () *	1DB3 () *	1DBC () *	1D9C+0327 () 1D9D	1DA8 () 1DBD	02E3 () 10797	02E0	1D61	02B6	10795 () 10790	02E4	02B0 () *	02B1
Approximant				1DB9				02B4				02B5		02B2 () 1DA3	() AB69	1DAD () 02B7
Tap/flap				107B0				107A9				107A8
Trill	*	10784						02B3										107AA	10796	107B4
Lateral fricative							1079B () 10799	1079E () 1079A			1079D	1079F	107A1		1079C
Lateral approximant								02E1 () 1DAA				1DA9		107A0 () *		1DAB () AB5E
Lateral tap/flap								107A6				107A7
Implosive	*	10785					*	1078C			*	1078D	*	10798	*	10793	*	10794
Click release	107B5				107B6	*	A71D	*			107B9	*	107B8	*	() *
Lateral click release							107B7	*
Percussive	(hack)				(hack)		A71E

Ejectives

The spacing diacritic for ejective consonants, U+2BC, works with superscript letters despite not being superscript itself: Template:Angbr IPA. If a distinction needs to be made, the combining apostrophe U+315 may be used: Template:Angbr IPA. The spacing diacritic should be used for a baseline letter with a superscript release, such as or , where the scope of the apostrophe includes the non-superscript letter, but the combining apostrophe U+315 might be used to indicate a weakly articulated ejective consonant like or , where the whole consonant is written as a superscript, or together with U+2BC when separate apostrophes have scope over the base and modifier letters, as in Template:Angbr IPA.

Secondary superscripting

Spacing diacritics, as in Template:Angbr IPA, cannot be secondarily superscripted in plain text: Template:Angbr IPA. (In this instance, the old IPA letter for , Template:Angbr IPA, has a superscript variant in Unicode, U+1DB5 Template:Angbr IPA, but that is not generally the case.)

Retired IPA

Among older IPA letters, the most common letters with palatal hook are supported; they are displayed in the table above. IPA once had an idiosyncratic curl on some of the palatalized letters: these are the fricative letters Template:Angbr IPA and the homologous affricates. Their superscript forms have been accepted for version 18 of the Unicode Standard. (The similar lateral fricative is not supported.) Old-style IPA click letters, voiceless implosives, and the retired letters Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA have also been accepted for version 18 of the Unicode Standard. The Teuthonista letter Template:Angbr IPA (U+A727) is also an old graphic variant of Template:Angbr IPA. Its superscript is supported at Template:Angbr IPA (U+AB5C).

Para-IPA

Among para-IPA letters, superscript variants of Sinological Template:Angbr IPA, of the Bantuist labio-dental plosives Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA, of the central semivowels Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, and Template:Angbr IPA, of the extended old-style click letters Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA, and of the voiceless bilabial trill Template:Angbr IPA have been accepted for version 18 of the Unicode Standard.

Vowel letters

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA vowel letters, plus a pair of extended letters Template:Angbr IPA found in some English dictionaries and Template:Angbr IPA used by some phoneticians, as well those found in as in Sinological phonetic notation, are as follows. Recently retired alternative letters such as Template:Angbr IPA are also supported; they are set off in parentheses and placed below the modern IPA letters. Asterisks mark superscript letters scheduled for release with Unicode 18 in September 2026.

Superscript IPA and para-IPA vowels and semivowels

	Front		Central		Back
Semivowel	02B2	1DA3	*     *     *		1DAD	02B7
Extra-close			*	*	*	*
Close	2071	02B8	1DA4	1DB6	1D5A	1D58
Near-close	1DA6 () 1DA5	107B2	1DA7 ()	* ()	() *	1DB7 () 107A4
Close-mid	1D49	107A2	1078E	1DB1	10791	1D52
Mid	*		1D4A
Open-mid	1D4B	A7F9	1D9F () 1D4C	1078F ()	1DBA	1D53
Near-open	10783		1D44
Open	1D43	107A3	*		1D45	1D9B

Rhotic vowels

The precomposed Unicode rhotic vowel letters Template:Angbr IPA are not directly supported. The rhotic diacritic U+02DE Template:Angbr IPA should be used instead: Template:Angbr IPA.

Retired IPA

Among older letters, Template:Angbr IPA (U+1D1C), a graphic variant of Template:Angbr IPA, is supported at Template:Angbr IPA (U+1DB8). The retired and later briefly resurrected vowel letter Template:Angbr IPA (U+029A) is not supported as a superscript, only its reversed replacement Template:Angbr IPA is.

Para-IPA

Among para-IPA letters, Sinological superscript Template:Angbr IPA have been accepted for version 18 of the Unicode Standard, as have Sinological Template:Angbr IPA and the English dictionary and phonetics symbols Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA. The Americanist conventions ⟨ᵾ⟩ and ⟨ꭥ⟩ do not have superscripts encoded or scheduled.

Length marks

The two length marks are also supported:

Length marks

Long	Half-long
10781	10782

These are used to add length to another superscript, such as Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA for long aspiration.

Wildcards

Superscript wildcards (full caps) are largely supported: e.g. (prenasalized consonant), (prestopped nasal), (fricative release), (sibilant release, added to Unicode in 2025), (epenthetic plosive), (tone-bearing syllable), (liquid or lateral release), (rhotic or resonant release), (off-glide/diphthong), (fleeting vowel). Superscript for fleeting/epenthetic click is not included in the Unicode Standard. Other basic Latin superscript wildcards for tone and weak indeterminate sounds, as described in International Phonetic Alphabet § Capital letters, are mostly supported. (See table in the Latin section.)

Combining marks and subscripts

In addition to superscripts, a very few IPA letters beyond the basic Latin alphabet have combining forms or are supported as subscripts:

Additional IPA modifier letters

	ɑ	æ	β	ç	ð	ə	ɣ	ʃ	ʍ	χ	ʔ	ʼ
Overscript	◌ᷧ	◌ᷔ	◌ᷩ	◌ᷗ	◌ᷙ	◌ᷪ		◌ᷯ			◌̉	◌̓
Subscript			ᵦ			ₔ	*			ᵪ
Underscript									◌ᫀ			◌̦

Composite characters

Primarily for compatibility with earlier character sets, Unicode contains a number of characters that compose super- and subscripts with other symbols. In most fonts these render much better than attempts to construct these symbols from the above characters or by using markup.

• The Latin-1 Supplement block contains the precomposed fractions Template:Char, Template:Char, and Template:Char. The copyright Template:Char and registered trademark signs Template:Char are also in this block; they are set as superscript in some fonts.
• The General Punctuation block contains the permille sign Template:Char and the per-ten-thousand sign Template:Char, and Basic Latin has the percent sign Template:Char.
• The Number Forms block contains several precomposed fractions: Template:Char.
• The Letterlike Symbols block contains a few symbols composed of subscript and superscript characters: Template:Char.
• The Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block contains three superscript abbreviations Template:Char: MC for (trademark), MD for (registered trademark), both used in Canada; MR for (registered trademark) in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.
• The Miscellaneous Technical block has one additional subscript, a subscript 10 (Template:Char), for the purpose of scientific notation.
• The Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and its Extended blocks contain several letters composed with superscripted letters to indicate extended sound values: Main block Template:Char, Extended block Template:Char.