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EmojiDB

U+278C · Other number

Dingbat Negative Circled Sans-Serif Digit Three Symbol ➌

➌ is dingbat negative circled sans-serif 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 sans-serif 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

UnicodeU+278C
HTML hex➌
HTML decimal➌
CSS\278C
JavaScript\u{278C}
Python\U0000278C
Java / C#\u278C
Rust\u{278c}
Swift\u{278C}
PHP\u{278C}
URL encoded%E2%9E%8C
UTF-8 bytesE2 9E 8C
UTF-16 bytes278C
Base644p6M
Decimal10124
Numeric value3
CategoryOther number (No)
IntroducedUnicode 1.1

Will ➌ survive being pasted?

  • Normalisation. Yes. ➌ is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
  • Legacy encodings. ➌ 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.

All 192 characters in Dingbats →

How to type ➌

WindowsType 278C then press Alt+X
macOSPress Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit three”
LinuxPress Ctrl+Shift+U, type 278c, press Enter
HTML➌

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 ➌ dingbat negative circled sans-serif digit three symbol?
On Windows, type 278C and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 278c. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ➌?
Dingbat Negative Circled Sans-Serif Digit Three is U+278C. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is ➌?
Dingbat Negative Circled Sans-Serif 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.