How do I type the ⅲ small roman numeral three symbol?

On Windows, type 2172 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2172. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ⅲ?

Small Roman Numeral Three is U+2172. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

Will ⅲ survive being pasted anywhere?

Not always. Small Roman Numeral Three is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with iii. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.

U+2172 · Letter number

Small Roman Numeral Three Symbol ⅲ

ⅲ is small roman numeral three, and Unicode gives it the numeric value 3. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Letter number.

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+2172`
HTML hex	`ⅲ`
HTML decimal	`ⅲ`
CSS	`\2172`
JavaScript	`\u{2172}`
Python	`\U00002172`
Java / C#	`\u2172`
Rust	`\u{2172}`
Swift	`\u{2172}`
PHP	`\u{2172}`
URL encoded	`%E2%85%B2`
UTF-8 bytes	`E2 85 B2`
UTF-16 bytes	`2172`
Base64	`4oWy`
Decimal	`8562`
Decomposes to	iii (compat form)
Numeric value	3
Category	Letter number (Nl)
Introduced	Unicode 1.1

Will ⅲ survive being pasted?

Normalisation. No. Anything that applies NFKC — search indexes, usernames, domain names, programming identifiers — rewrites ⅲ as iii. Safe for display, not for storage.
Legacy encodings. ⅲ 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 Number Forms

Roman numerals as single characters, and the vulgar fractions beyond the three Latin-1 supplies. A Roman numeral here is one character, not a run of letters, so Ⅷ and VIII sort and search differently.

All 58 characters in Number Forms →

How to type ⅲ

Windows	Type `2172` then press `Alt`+`X`
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “small roman numeral three”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `2172`, press `Enter`
HTML	`ⅲ`

About Unicode’s Letter number category

This is a letter number: a character that looks like a letter but carries a numeric value, the way Roman numerals do.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the ⅲ small roman numeral three symbol?: On Windows, type 2172 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2172. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ⅲ?: Small Roman Numeral Three is U+2172. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
Will ⅲ survive being pasted anywhere?: Not always. Small Roman Numeral Three is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with iii. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.