U+2778 · Other number
Dingbat Negative Circled Digit Three Symbol ❸
❸ is dingbat negative circled digit three, and Unicode gives it the numeric value 3. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other number.
Also known as
Unicode 1.0 called this character inverse circled digit three. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+2778 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ❸ | |
| HTML decimal | ❸ | |
| CSS | \2778 | |
| JavaScript | \u{2778} | |
| Python | \U00002778 | |
| Java / C# | \u2778 | |
| Rust | \u{2778} | |
| Swift | \u{2778} | |
| PHP | \u{2778} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%9D%B8 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 9D B8 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 2778 | |
| Base64 | 4p24 | |
| Decimal | 10104 | |
| Numeric value | 3 | |
| Category | Other number (No) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ❸ survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ❸ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ❸ is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Other three characters
Unicode names 9 characters ending in “three”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Dingbats
Zapf Dingbats, encoded character for character: ornamental stars, crosses, check marks, scissors and pointing hands. The check marks and crosses here are the ones most often pasted into documents and spreadsheets.
How to type ❸
| Windows | Type 2778 then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “dingbat negative circled digit three” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2778, press Enter |
| HTML | ❸ |
About Unicode’s Other number category
This is classified as a number that is not a plain digit — a fraction, a superscript figure, a circled or bracketed numeral. Software will not parse it as a number without being told to.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ❸ dingbat negative circled digit three symbol?
- On Windows, type 2778 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2778. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ❸?
- Dingbat Negative Circled Digit Three is U+2778. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ❸?
- Dingbat Negative Circled Digit Three is filed under Other number in the Dingbats block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. This is classified as a number that is not a plain digit — a fraction, a superscript figure, a circled or bracketed numeral. Software will not parse it as a number without being told to.