Unicode hassubscripted and superscripted versions of a number of characters including a full set ofArabic numerals.^[1] These characters allow anypolynomial,chemical and certain otherequations to be represented in plain text without using any form ofmarkup likeHTML orTeX.

TheWorld Wide Web Consortium and theUnicode 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, inphonetic orphonemic transcription.^[2]

Theintended use^[2] 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) issupposed 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 mathematicalnumerator anddenominator glyphs,^[3][4] which are aligned with thecap line and thebaseline, respectively. When used with thesolidus 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 markup³/₄ with precomposed ¾). The change also makes the superscript letters useful forordinal indicators, more closely matching the ª and º characters.

Unicode intended that diagonal fractions be rendered by a different mechanism: thefraction 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.^[5][a] User-end support was quite poor for a number of years, but fonts,^[b] browsers,^[c] word processors,^[d] desktop publishing software^[e] and others increasingly support the intended Unicode behavior. This browser and your default font render it as 3⁄4. (SeeSlash (punctuation)#Fractions for rendering in various other fonts.)

The most common superscript digits (1, 2, and 3) were included inISO-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 atU+2070 to U+209F. The table below shows these characters together. Each superscript or subscript character is preceded by a baselinex 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,^[ref] three of these (209D, 209E, and 209F) were provisionally assigned to new subscript characters, namely Latin lowercase w, y, and z.^[6][7]

Unicode also includes codepoints for subscript and superscript characters that are intended for semantic usage, in the following blocks:^[1][8]

Superscript

• TheLatin-1 Supplement block contains the feminine and masculineordinal indicators ª and º.
• TheLatin Extended-C block contains one superscript, ⱽ.
• TheLatin Extended-D block contains six superscripts: ꝰ ꟲ ꟳ ꟴ ꟸ ꟹ.
• TheLatin Extended-E block contains five superscripts: ꭜ ꭝ ꭞ ꭟ ꭩ.
• TheLatin Extended-F block is entirelysuperscript 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.
• TheSpacing 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.
• ThePhonetic 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 indicatesecondary articulation.
• ThePhonetic 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.
• TheCyrillic Extended-B block contains twoCyrillic superscripts: ꚜ ꚝ.
• TheCyrillic 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.
• TheGeorgian block contains one superscriptedMkhedruli letter: ჼ.
• TheKanbun block has superscripted annotation characters used in Japanese copies ofClassical Chinese texts: ㆒ ㆓ ㆔ ㆕ ㆖ ㆗ ㆘ ㆙ ㆚ ㆛ ㆜ ㆝ ㆞ ㆟.
• TheTifinagh block has one superscript letter : ⵯ.
• TheUnified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and itsExtended blocks contain several mostlyconsonant-only letters to indicatesyllable coda called Finals, along with some characters that indicatesyllable 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

• TheCombining 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 thedotted circle placeholder ◌: ◌ͣ ◌ͤ ◌ͥ ◌ͦ ◌ͧ ◌ͨ ◌ͩ ◌ͪ ◌ͫ ◌ͬ ◌ͭ ◌ͮ ◌ͯ.
• TheCombining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains three combininginsular letters for the Middle EnglishOrmulum, ◌ᫌ ◌ᫍ ◌ᫎ.^[9]
• TheCombining 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 ◌ᷩ.
• TheCyrillic 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): ◌ⷠ ◌ⷡ ◌ⷢ ◌ⷣ ◌ⷤ ◌ⷥ ◌ⷦ ◌ⷧ ◌ⷨ ◌ⷩ ◌ⷪ ◌ⷫ ◌ⷬ ◌ⷭ ◌ⷮ ◌ⷯ ◌ⷰ ◌ⷱ ◌ⷲ ◌ⷳ ◌ⷴ ◌ⷵ ◌ⷶ ◌ⷷ ◌ⷸ ◌ⷹ ◌ⷺ ◌ⷻ ◌ⷼ ◌ⷽ ◌ⷾ ◌ⷿ ◌ꙴ ◌ꙵ ◌ꙶ ◌ꙷ ◌ꙸ ◌ꙹ ◌ꙺ ◌ꙻ ◌ꚞ ◌ꚟ.
• TheCyrillic Extended-D block has one additional combining character, that being і: ◌𞂏.

Subscript

• TheLatin Extended-C block contains one subscript, ⱼ.
• ThePhonetic Extensions block has several subscripted letters and symbols: Latin/IPA ᵢ ᵣ ᵤ ᵥ and Greek ᵦ ᵧ ᵨ ᵩ ᵪ.
• TheCyrillic 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

• TheCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement block contains a combining subscript: ◌᷊.
• TheCombining Diacritical Marks Extended block contains two combining letters for linguistic transcriptions ofScots, ◌ᪿ ◌ᫀ.

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⟩.

*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.^[6]

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.

*Superscript versions of Greek psi and omega have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.^[6]

Superscript and subscriptё,ї,й,ў etc. are handled with diacritics,⟨𞀵̈ 𞁌̈ 𞀸̆ 𞁁̆⟩etc. Many of the Cyrillic characters were added to theCyrillic Extended-D block, which was added to the freeGentium Plus andAndika fonts with version 6.2 in February 2023.

See alsosmall caps in Unicode.

TheLatin Extended-F block was created for the remainingsuperscript IPA letters. They are supported by the freeGentium Plus andAndika fonts. Additional superscript characters for historical and para-IPA letters have been accepted for future versions of the Unicode Standard.^[6]

The Unicode characters for superscript (modifier) IPA andextIPA consonant letters are as follows. The entireLatin 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.

The spacing diacritic for ejective consonants, U+2BC, works with superscript letters despite not being superscript itself: ⟨ᵖʼᵗʼᶜʼᵏˣʼ⟩. If a distinction needs to be made, the combining apostrophe U+315 may be used: ⟨ᵖ̕ᵗ̕ᶜ̕ᵏˣ̕⟩. 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⟩.^[10]

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 withpalatal 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 ⟨ʆʓ⟩. 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.^[6] The Teuthonista letter ⟨ꜧ⟩ (U+A727) approximates an old graphic variant of ⟨ɮ⟩. Its superscript is supported at ⟨ꭜ⟩ (U+AB5C).

Among para-IPA letters, superscript variants of Sinological ⟨ȡȴȵȶ⟩, 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.^[6]

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

The precomposed Unicode rhotic vowel letters ⟨ɚɝ⟩ are not directly supported. The rhotic diacritic U+02DE◌˞ should be used instead: ⟨ᵊ˞ ᶟ˞⟩.^[11]

⟨ɜ⟩ and ⟨ᶟ⟩ arereversedɛ. The older IPAturnedɛ, ⟨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).^[12]

Among para-IPA letters, Sinological superscript ⟨ɿʅʮʯ ⟩ have been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard.^[6]

The two length marks are also supported:

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

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). SuperscriptS for sibilant release has been accepted for a future version of the Unicode Standard;^[6] superscriptꞰ for fleeting/epenthetic click has not. Other basic Latin superscript wildcards for tone and weak indeterminate sounds, as described in the article on theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, are mostly supported. (See table in previous section.)

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

Primarily for compatibility with earlier character sets, Unicode contains a number of characters that compose super- and subscripts with other symbols.^[1] In most fonts these render much better than attempts to construct these symbols from the above characters or by using markup.

• TheLatin-1 Supplement block contains the precomposed fractions ½, ¼, and ¾. Thecopyright © andregistered trademark signs ® are also in this block.
• TheGeneral Punctuation block contains thepermille sign ‰ and theper-ten-thousand sign ‱, andBasic Latin has thepercent sign %.
• TheNumber Forms block contains several precomposed fractions: ⅐ ⅑ ⅒ ⅓ ⅔ ⅕ ⅖ ⅗ ⅘ ⅙ ⅚ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ⅟ ↉.
• TheLetterlike Symbols block contains a few symbols composed of subscript and superscript characters: ℀ ℁ ℅ ℆ № ℠ ™ ⅍.
• TheEnclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block contains three superscript abbreviations 🅪 🅫 🅬: MC formarque de commerce (trademark), MD formarque déposée (registered trademark), both used in Canada; MR formarca registrada (registered trademark) in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.^[13]
• TheMiscellaneous Technical block has one additional subscript, a subscript 10 (⏨), for the purpose ofscientific notation.
• TheUnified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and itsExtended 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.

• Unicode

• Pages with plain IPA
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia pages semi-protected from banned users
• Use mdy dates from January 2025
• Articles containing potentially dated statements from November 2024
• All articles containing potentially dated statements
• Articles containing French-language text
• Articles containing Spanish-language text