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Uses

The intended use³ 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 "H₂O" (using a subscript 2 character) is supposed to be identical to "H2O" (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,⁴⁵ 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 ³/₄ for the ¾ glyph. Super and subscript markup does not produce a correct fraction (compare markup 3/4 with precomposed ¾). 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 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 ¾ is to be rendered using automatic glyph substitution.⁶⁷ User-end support was quite poor for a number of years, but fonts,⁸ browsers,⁹ word processors,¹⁰ desktop publishing software¹¹ and others increasingly support the intended Unicode behavior. This browser and your default font render it as 3⁄4. (See Slash (punctuation)#Fractions for rendering in various other fonts.)

Superscripts and subscripts block

Main article: Superscripts and Subscripts (Unicode 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 x 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 w, y, and z.¹²¹³

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:¹⁴¹⁵

Superscript

• The Latin-1 Supplement block contains the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators ª and º.
• The Latin Extended-C block contains one superscript, ⱽ.
• The Latin Extended-D block contains six superscripts: ꝰ ꟲ ꟳ ꟴ ꟸ ꟹ.
• The Latin Extended-E block contains five superscripts: ꭜ ꭝ ꭞ ꭟ ꭩ.
• The Latin Extended-F block is entirely superscript IPA letters: 𐞁 𐞂 𐞃 𐞄 𐞅 𐞇 𐞈 𐞉 𐞊 𐞋 𐞌 𐞍 𐞎 𐞏 𐞐 𐞑 𐞒 𐞓 𐞔 𐞕 𐞖 𐞗 𐞘 𐞙 𐞚 𐞛 𐞜 𐞝 𐞞 𐞟 𐞠 𐞡 𐞢 𐞣 𐞤 𐞥 𐞦 𐞧 𐞨 𐞩 𐞪 𐞫 𐞬 𐞭 𐞮 𐞯 𐞰 𐞲 𐞳 𐞴 𐞵 𐞶 𐞷 𐞸 𐞹 𐞺.
• The Spacing Modifier Letters block has superscripted letters and symbols used for phonetic transcription: ʰ ʱ ʲ ʳ ʴ ʵ ʶ ʷ ʸ ˀ ˁ ˠ ˡ ˢ ˣ ˤ.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several superscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA ᴬ ᴭ ᴮ ᴯ ᴰ ᴱ ᴲ ᴳ ᴴ ᴵ ᴶ ᴷ ᴸ ᴹ ᴺ ᴻ ᴼ ᴽ ᴾ ᴿ ᵀ ᵁ ᵂ ᵃ ᵄ ᵅ ᵆ ᵇ ᵈ ᵉ ᵊ ᵋ ᵌ ᵍ ᵏ ᵐ ᵑ ᵒ ᵓ ᵖ ᵗ ᵘ ᵚ ᵛ, Greek ᵝ ᵞ ᵟ ᵠ ᵡ, Cyrillic ᵸ, other ᵎ ᵔ ᵕ ᵙ ᵜ. These are intended to indicate secondary articulation.
• The Phonetic Extensions Supplement block has several more: Latin/IPA ᶛ ᶜ ᶝ ᶞ ᶟ ᶠ ᶡ ᶢ ᶣ ᶤ ᶥ ᶦ ᶧ ᶨ ᶩ ᶪ ᶫ ᶬ ᶭ ᶮ ᶯ ᶰ ᶱ ᶲ ᶳ ᶴ ᶵ ᶶ ᶷ ᶸ ᶹ ᶺ ᶻ ᶼ ᶽ ᶾ, Greek ᶿ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-B block contains two Cyrillic superscripts: ꚜ ꚝ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block contains many Cyrillic superscripts: 𞀰 𞀱 𞀲 𞀳 𞀷 𞀵 𞀶 𞀷 𞀸 𞀹 𞀺 𞀻 𞀼 𞀽 𞀾 𞀿 𞁀 𞁁 𞁂 𞁃 𞁄 𞁅 𞁆 𞁇 𞁈 𞁉 𞁊 𞁋 𞁌 𞁍 𞁎 𞁏 𞁐 𞁫 𞁬 𞁭.
• The Georgian block contains one superscripted Mkhedruli letter: ჼ.
• The Kanbun block has superscripted annotation characters used in Japanese copies of Classical Chinese texts: ㆒ ㆓ ㆔ ㆕ ㆖ ㆗ ㆘ ㆙ ㆚ ㆛ ㆜ ㆝ ㆞ ㆟.
• The Tifinagh block has one superscript letter : ⵯ.
• 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 ᐜ ᐝ ᐞ ᐟ ᐠ ᐡ ᐢ ᐣ ᐤ ᐥ ᐦ ᐧ ᐨ ᐩ ᐪ ᑉ ᑊ ᑋ ᒃ ᒄ ᒡ ᒢ ᒻ ᒼ ᒽ ᒾ ᓐ ᓑ ᓒ ᓪ ᓫ ᔅ ᔆ ᔇ ᔈ ᔉ ᔊ ᔋ ᔥ ᔾ ᔿ ᕀ ᕁ ᕐ ᕑ ᕝ ᕪ ᕻ ᕯ ᕽ ᖅ ᖕ ᖖ ᖟ ᖦ ᖮ ᗮ ᘁ ᙆ ᙇ ᙚ ᙾ ᙿ; Extended block: ᣔ ᣕ ᣖ ᣗ ᣘ ᣙ ᣚ ᣛ ᣜ ᣝ ᣞ ᣟ ᣳ ᣴ ᣵ.

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 ◌: ◌ͣ ◌ͤ ◌ͥ ◌ͦ ◌ͧ ◌ͨ ◌ͩ ◌ͪ ◌ͫ ◌ͬ ◌ͭ ◌ͮ ◌ͯ.
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains three combining insular letters for the Middle English Ormulum, ◌ᫌ ◌ᫍ ◌ᫎ.¹⁶
• The Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains additional medieval superscript letter diacritics, enough to complete the basic lowercase Latin alphabet except for j, q and y, a few small capitals and ligatures (ae, ao, av), and additional letters: ◌᷒ ◌ᷓ ◌ᷔ ◌ᷕ ◌ᷖ ◌ᷗ ◌ᷘ ◌ᷙ ◌ᷚ ◌ᷛ ◌ᷜ ◌ᷝ ◌ᷞ ◌ᷟ ◌ᷠ ◌ᷡ ◌ᷢ ◌ᷣ ◌ᷤ ◌ᷥ ◌ᷦ ◌ᷧ ◌ᷨ ◌ᷪ ◌ᷫ ◌ᷬ ◌ᷭ ◌ᷮ ◌ᷯ ◌ᷰ ◌ᷱ ◌ᷲ ◌ᷳ ◌ᷴ, Greek ◌ᷩ.
• 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): ◌ⷠ ◌ⷡ ◌ⷢ ◌ⷣ ◌ⷤ ◌ⷥ ◌ⷦ ◌ⷧ ◌ⷨ ◌ⷩ ◌ⷪ ◌ⷫ ◌ⷬ ◌ⷭ ◌ⷮ ◌ⷯ ◌ⷰ ◌ⷱ ◌ⷲ ◌ⷳ ◌ⷴ ◌ⷵ ◌ⷶ ◌ⷷ ◌ⷸ ◌ⷹ ◌ⷺ ◌ⷻ ◌ⷼ ◌ⷽ ◌ⷾ ◌ⷿ ◌ꙴ ◌ꙵ ◌ꙶ ◌ꙷ ◌ꙸ ◌ꙹ ◌ꙺ ◌ꙻ ◌ꚞ ◌ꚟ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block has one additional combining character, that being і: ◌𞂏.

Subscript

• The Latin Extended-C block contains one subscript, ⱼ.
• The Phonetic Extensions block has several subscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA ᵢ ᵣ ᵤ ᵥ and Greek ᵦ ᵧ ᵨ ᵩ ᵪ.
• The Cyrillic Extended-D block also contains many Cyrillic subscripts: 𞁑 𞁒 𞁓 𞁔 𞁕 𞁖 𞁗 𞁘 𞁙 𞁚 𞁛 𞁜 𞁝 𞁞 𞁟 𞁠 𞁡 𞁢 𞁣 𞁤 𞁥 𞁦 𞁧 𞁨 𞁩 𞁪.

Combining subscript

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

Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and IPA tables

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 ⟨ꜝ⟩ 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: ⟨ˀ̣⟩.

Latin superscript and subscript 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	*	ᵀ	ᵁ	ⱽ	ᵂ	–	–	–
Superscript small capital	*	𐞄		*	*	–	𐞒	𐞖	ᶦ	–	§	ᶫ	§	ᶰ		*	–	𐞪		§	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	–	§	–	ₑ	–	–	ₕ	ᵢ	ⱼ	ₖ	ₗ	ₘ	ₙ	ₒ	ₚ	–	ᵣ	ₛ	ₜ	ᵤ	ᵥ	*	ₓ	*	*
Underscript minuscule																		◌᷊					◌ᪿ

*Superscript versions of S, of petite capital A, D, E and P, of ƀ, and subscript versions of w, y and z have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.¹⁷

§ Cyrillic 𞀹 𞀻 𞁀, ◌ⷡ ◌ⷩ ◌ⷦ ◌ⷮ ◌ꙷ and 𞁞 might be substituted for these letters, but the same font would have to cover both ranges for it to look right.

Additional Latin characters

	Æ	Ƀ	Ǝ	Ə	ꬸ	Ŋ
Superscript capital	ᴭ	ᴯ	ᴲ			ᴻ
Superscript minuscule	𐞃	*	ᵊ			ᵑ
Overscript minuscule	◌ᷔ		◌ᷪ		◌ᷬ
Subscript minuscule			ₔ

Some of these superscript capitals are small caps in the source documents in the Unicode proposals.

Shaded cells Greek letters that are indistinguishable from Latin, and so would not be expected to be supported by Unicode.

Greek superscript and subscript letters

	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	18	ᵝ	ᵞ	ᵟ	ᵋ			ᶿ	ᶥ											19	ᵠ	ᵡ	*	*
Overscript minuscule	20	◌ᷩ
Subscript minuscule		ᵦ	ᵧ						ͺ21								ᵨ				ᵩ	ᵪ
Underscript minuscule									◌ͅ															◌̫22

*Superscript versions of Greek psi and omega have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.²³

Russian superscript and subscript 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 characters

	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 characters

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

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 small caps in Unicode.

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 have been accepted for future versions of the Unicode Standard.²⁴

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 base letters.

IPA and extIPA consonants, along with superscript variants and their Unicode code points

	Bi­labial		Labio­dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post­alveolar		Retro­flex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyn­geal		Glottal
Nasal		m ᵐ1D50		ɱ ᶬ1DAC				n ⁿ207F(ᶇ)		(ȵ)		ɳ ᶯ1DAF		ɲ ᶮ1DAE		ŋ ᵑ1D51		ɴ ᶰ1DB0
Plosive	p ᵖ1D56	b ᵇ1D47					t ᵗ1D57(ƫ ᶵ)1DB5	d ᵈ1D48(ᶁ)	(ȶ)	(ȡ)	ʈ 𐞯107AF	ɖ 𐞋1078B	c ᶜ1D9C	ɟ ᶡ1DA1	k ᵏ1D4F	ɡ ᶢ/g ᵍ1DA2/1D4D	q 𐞥107A5	ɢ 𐞒10792	ʡ 𐞳107B3		ʔ ˀ02C0
Affricate							ʦ 𐞬107AC	ʣ 𐞇10787	ʧ 𐞮107AE(ʨ 𐞫)107AB	ʤ 𐞊1078A(ʥ 𐞉)10789	ꭧ 𐞭107AD(𝼜)	ꭦ 𐞈10788(𝼙)
Fricative	ɸ ᶲ1DB2	β ᵝ1D5D	f ᶠ1DA0	v ᵛ1D5B	θ ᶿ1DBF	ð ᶞ1D9E	s ˢ02E2(ᶊ)	z ᶻ1DBB(ᶎ)	ʃ ᶴ1DB4(ɕ ᶝ)1D9D	ʒ ᶾ1DBE(ʑ ᶽ)1DBD	ʂ ᶳ1DB3(ᶘ)	ʐ ᶼ1DBC(ᶚ)	ç ᶜ̧1D9C + 032725	ʝ ᶨ1DA8	x ˣ02E3(ɧ 𐞗)10797	ɣ ˠ02E0	χ ᵡ1D61	ʁ ʶ02B6	ħ 𐞕10795(ʩ 𐞐)10790	ʕ ˤ02E426	h ʰ02B0(ꞕ)	ɦ ʱ02B1
Approximant				ʋ ᶹ1DB9				ɹ ʴ02B4				ɻ ʵ02B5		j ʲ02B2(ɥ ᶣ)1DA3	(ʍ ꭩ)AB69	ɰ ᶭ1DAD(w ʷ)02B7
Tap/flap				ⱱ 𐞰107B0				ɾ 𐞩107A9				ɽ 𐞨107A8
Trill		ʙ 𐞄10784						r ʳ02B3										ʀ 𐞪107AA	ʜ 𐞖10796	ʢ 𐞴107B4
Lateral fricative							ɬ 𐞛1079B(ʪ 𐞙)10799	ɮ 𐞞1079E(ʫ 𐞚)1079A			ꞎ 𐞝1079D	𝼅 𐞟1079F	𝼆 𐞡107A1		𝼄 𐞜1079C
Lateral approximant								l ˡ02E1(ᶅ ᶪ)1DAA		(ȴ)		ɭ ᶩ1DA9		ʎ 𐞠107A0		ʟ ᶫ1DAB(ɫ ꭞ)27AB5E
Lateral tap/flap								ɺ 𐞦107A6				𝼈 𐞧107A7
Implosive	ƥ	ɓ 𐞅10785					ƭ	ɗ 𐞌1078C			𝼉	ᶑ 𐞍1078D	ƈ	ʄ 𐞘10798	ƙ	ɠ 𐞓10793	ʠ	ʛ 𐞔10794
Click release	ʘ 𐞵107B5	ɋ			ǀ 𐞶107B6	ʇ	ǃ ꜝA71D	ʗ			𝼊 𐞹107B9	ψ	ǂ 𐞸107B8	𝼋	(ʞ)
Lateral clickrelease							ǁ 𐞷107B7	ʖ
Percussive							¡ ꜞA71E28

The spacing diacritic for ejective consonants, U+2BC, works with superscript letters despite not being superscript itself: ⟨ᵖʼ ᵗʼ ᶜʼ ᵏˣʼ⟩. If a distinction needs to be made, the combining apostrophe U+315 may be used: ⟨ᵖ̕ ᵗ̕ ᶜ̕ ᵏˣ̕⟩. The spacing diacritic should be used for a baseline letter with a superscript release, such as [tˢʼ] or [kˣʼ], 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 [ᵗ̕] or [ᵏ̕], 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 ⟨pʼᵏˣ̕⟩.²⁹

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

Among older 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 ⟨ʆ ʓ⟩. Their superscript forms have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard. Old-style click letters and the retired letters ⟨ƞ⟩ and ⟨ɼ⟩ have also been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.³⁰ The Teuthonista letter ⟨ꜧ⟩ (U+A727) is an old graphic variant of ⟨ɮ⟩. Its superscript is supported at ⟨ꭜ⟩ (U+AB5C).

Among para-IPA letters, superscript variants of Sinological ⟨ȡ ȴ ȵ ȶ⟩, of the Bantuist labio-dental plosives ⟨ȹ⟩ and ⟨ȸ⟩, and of central semivowels ⟨ɉ⟩, ⟨ɥ̶⟩, and ⟨w̶⟩ have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.³¹

Vowel letters

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA vowel letters, plus a pair of extended letters ⟨ᵻ ᵿ⟩ found in English dictionaries, are as follows. Recently retired alternative letters such as ⟨ɩ ɷ⟩ are also supported; they are set off in parentheses and placed below the standard IPA letters:

IPA vowels and superscript variants

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i ⁱ2071	y ʸ02B8	ɨ ᶤ1DA4	ʉ ᶶ1DB6	ɯ ᵚ1D5A	u ᵘ1D58
Near-close	ɪ ᶦ1DA6(ɩ ᶥ)1DA5	ʏ 𐞲107B2	(ᵻ ᶧ)1DA7	(ᵿ)	(ω)	ʊ ᶷ1DB7(ɷ 𐞤)107A4
Close-mid	e ᵉ1D49	ø 𐞢107A2	ɘ 𐞎1078E	ɵ ᶱ1DB1	ɤ 𐞑10791	o ᵒ1D52
Mid			ə ᵊ1D4A
Open-mid	ɛ ᵋ1D4B	œ ꟹA7F9	ɜ ᶟ1D9F(ᴈ ᵌ)1D4C	ɞ 𐞏1078F	ʌ ᶺ1DBA	ɔ ᵓ1D53
Near-open	æ 𐞃10783	ɶ 𐞣107A3	ɐ ᵄ1D44		ɑ ᵅ1D45	ɒ ᶛ1D9B
Open	a ᵃ1D43

The precomposed Unicode rhotic vowel letters ⟨ɚ ɝ⟩ are not directly supported. The rhotic diacritic U+02DE ◌˞ should be used instead: ⟨ᵊ˞ ᶟ˞⟩.³²

⟨ɜ⟩ and ⟨ᶟ⟩ are reversed ɛ. The older IPA turned ɛ, ⟨ᴈ⟩, is also supported, at U+1D4C ⟨ᵌ⟩. However, the briefly resurrected vowel letter ⟨ʚ⟩ (U+029A) is not supported, only its reversed replacement ⟨ɞ⟩ is.

Among older letters, ⟨ᴜ⟩ (U+1D1C), a graphic variant of ⟨ʊ⟩, is supported at ⟨ᶸ⟩ (U+1DB8).³³

Among para-IPA letters, Sinological superscript ⟨ɿ ʅ ʮ ʯ ⟩ and ⟨ᴀ ᴇ⟩ have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.³⁴

Length marks

The two length marks are also supported:

Length marks

Long	Half-long
ː 𐞁10781	ˑ 𐞂10782

These are used to add length to another superscript, such as ⟨Cʰ𐞁⟩ or ⟨Cʰ𐞂⟩ for long aspiration.

Wildcards

Superscript wildcards (full caps) are largely supported: e.g. ᴺC (prenasalized consonant), ꟲN (prestopped nasal), Pꟳ (fricative release), NᴾF (epenthetic plosive), CVNᵀ (tone-bearing syllable), Cᴸ (liquid or lateral release), Cᴿ (rhotic or resonant release), Vᴳ (off-glide/diphthong), Cⱽ (fleeting vowel). Superscript S for sibilant release has been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard;³⁵ superscript Ʞ for fleeting/epenthetic click has not. Other basic Latin superscript wildcards for tone and weak indeterminate sounds, as described in the article on the International Phonetic Alphabet, are mostly supported. (See table in previous section.)

Combining marks and subscripts

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

Additional IPA characters

	ä	ɑ	æ	β	ç	ð	ə	ʃ	ʍ	χ	ʔ	ʼ
Overscript	◌ᷲ	◌ᷧ	◌ᷔ	◌ᷩ	◌ᷗ	◌ᷙ	◌ᷪ	◌ᷯ			◌̉36	◌̓
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.³⁷ 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 ½, ¼, and ¾. The copyright © and registered trademark signs ® are also in this block; they are set as superscript in some fonts.
• The General Punctuation block contains the permille sign ‰ and the per-ten-thousand sign ‱, and Basic Latin has the percent sign %.
• The Number Forms block contains several precomposed fractions: ⅐ ⅑ ⅒ ⅓ ⅔ ⅕ ⅖ ⅗ ⅘ ⅙ ⅚ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ⅟ ↉.
• The Letterlike Symbols block contains a few symbols composed of subscript and superscript characters: ℀ ℁ ℅ ℆ № ℠ ™ ⅍.
• The Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block contains three superscript abbreviations 🅪 🅫 🅬: MC for marque de commerce (trademark), MD for marque déposée (registered trademark), both used in Canada; MR for marca registrada (registered trademark) in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.³⁸
• The Miscellaneous Technical block has one additional subscript, a subscript 10 (⏨), 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 ᐂ ᐫ ᐬ ᐭ ᐮ ᐰ ᑍ ᑧ ᑨ ᑩ ᑪ ᑬ ᒅ ᒆ ᒇ ᒈ ᒊ ᒤ ᓁ ᓔ ᓮ ᔌ ᔍ ᔎ ᔏ ᔧ ᕅ ᕔ ᕿ ᖀ ᖁ ᖂ ᖃ ᖄ ᖎ ᖏ ᖐ ᖑ ᖒ ᖓ ᖔ ᙯ ᙰ ᙱ ᙲ ᙳ ᙴ ᙵ ᙶ, Extended block ᢰ ᢱ ᢲ ᢳ ᢴ ᢵ ᢶ ᢷ ᢸ ᢹ ᢺ ᢻ ᢼ ᢽ ᢾ ᢿ ᣀ ᣁ ᣂ ᣃ ᣄ ᣅ.

Notes

• Writing portal

References

1. "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved May 14, 2016. https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt ↩

2. Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag (May 16, 2007). "Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages". W3C. Retrieved September 13, 2010. http://www.w3.org/TR/unicode-xml/#Superscripts ↩

3. Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag (May 16, 2007). "Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages". W3C. Retrieved September 13, 2010. http://www.w3.org/TR/unicode-xml/#Superscripts ↩

4. "fraction | Dart Package". Dart packages. December 27, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2022. https://pub.dev/packages/fraction ↩

5. "MathML | General layout elements | Fractions". data2type GmbH (in German). March 30, 2021. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20210128015254/https://www.data2type.de/xml-xslt-xslfo/math-ml/presentation-markup/layout-elements/fractions/ ↩

6. Martin Dürst, Asmus Freytag (May 16, 2007). "Fraction Slash". W3C. Retrieved September 13, 2010. https://www.w3.org/TR/unicode-xml/#Fraction ↩

7. For a general overview and technical information on glyph substitution (though not specifically for fractions), see GSUB — Glyph Substitution Table in the OpenType specification on the Microsoft Typography site. https://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/gsub.htm ↩

8. Such as Andika, Arno Pro, Brill, Brioso Pro, Calibri, Candara, Carlito, Cantarell, FiraGO, EB Garamond, Gentium, Lato, Linux Libertine, Noto Sans, Noto Serif, Open Sans and Yrsa /wiki/Andika_(typeface) ↩

9. Such as Chrome, Firefox and Falkon /wiki/Chrome_(browser) ↩

10. Such as LibreOffice Writer /wiki/LibreOffice_Writer ↩

11. Such as Adobe InDesign and Scribus /wiki/Adobe_InDesign ↩

12. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

13. "Approved Minutes of UTC Meeting 181". Unicode Consortium. January 27, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24221.htm#181-C35 ↩

14. "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved May 14, 2016. https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt ↩

15. "UCD: Scripts.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved September 21, 2022. https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/Scripts.txt ↩

16. Everson, Michael; West, Andrew (October 5, 2020). "L2/20-268: Revised proposal to add ten characters for Middle English to the UCS" (PDF). https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20268-n5145-ormulum.pdf ↩

17. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

18. In some fonts, Latin alpha ᵅ and upsilon ᶹ can be used as superscript Greek alpha and upsilon. ᵋ and ᶥ are also officially Latin letters, but display the same as Greek. ↩

19. In some fonts, Latin alpha ᵅ and upsilon ᶹ can be used as superscript Greek alpha and upsilon. ᵋ and ᶥ are also officially Latin letters, but display the same as Greek. ↩

20. In some fonts, Latin alpha ᵅ and upsilon ᶹ can be used as superscript Greek alpha and upsilon. ᵋ and ᶥ are also officially Latin letters, but display the same as Greek. ↩

21. ⟨ͺ⟩ is set lower than a normal subscript. It is equivalent to underscript ⟨◌ͅ⟩ on a space. ↩

22. ⟨◌̫⟩ is traditionally typeset as an omega. ↩

23. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

24. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

25. Superscript ⟨ç⟩ is composed of superscript c and a combining cedilla, which should display properly in a good font. Superscript c was specifically requested for this purpose in Unicode proposal L2/03-180. /wiki/Combining_character ↩

26. U+02E4 ˤ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL REVERSED GLOTTAL STOP is the superscript variant of U+0295 ʕ LATIN LETTER PHARYNGEAL VOICED FRICATIVE and is defined for IPA use. The similar character U+02C1 ˁ MODIFIER LETTER REVERSED GLOTTAL STOP is a reversed U+02C0 ˀ MODIFIER LETTER GLOTTAL STOP, perhaps a gelded reversed question mark. Fonts are inconsistent in whether they look different and what the difference is. ↩

27. In Microsoft fonts, superscript ⟨ɫ⟩ was erroneously designed as a superscript ⟨ꬸ⟩. ↩

28. U+A71D ⟨ꜝ⟩ and A71E ⟨ꜞ⟩ were adopted as the Africanist equivalents of the IPA characters ⟨ꜜ⟩ downstep and ⟨ꜛ⟩ upstep. The correspondence of U+A71D ⟨ꜝ⟩ to the IPA click letter ⟨ǃ⟩ is thus accidental. Coincidentally, U+A71E ⟨ꜞ⟩ serves as the superscript variant of the extIPA percussive consonant ⟨¡⟩; the other percussive letters, ⟨ʬ⟩ and ⟨ʭ⟩, do not have superscript support in Unicode. /wiki/Downstep ↩

29. Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-253R Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20253r-mod-ipa-b.pdf ↩

30. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

31. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

32. Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-252R Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf ↩

33. Kirk Miller (January 30, 2024). "L2/24-081: Latin Phonetic The for Middle Tilde" (PDF). https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24081-phonetic-middle-tilde.pdf ↩

34. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

35. "Additional draft repertoire for provisionally assigned code points for Unicode" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. November 26, 2024. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24268-n5291-post-17-chart.pdf ↩

36. This is actually the Vietnamese diacritic dấu hỏi, not specifically IPA, but graphically both are gelded question marks. /wiki/Hook_above ↩

37. "UCD: UnicodeData.txt". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved May 14, 2016. https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt ↩

38. Silva, Eduardo Marín (March 1, 2017). "L2/17-066R: Proposal to encode the Marca Registrada sign" (PDF). http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17066r-marca-registrada.pdf ↩