What Is the Dot below? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
A dot under a letter. Vietnamese uses it for the heavy tone (ạ, ệ), Yoruba for open vowels (ẹ, ọ), and transliteration systems for retroflex sounds.
Letters with the dot below: ẹ ọ ṣ ạ ị ụ ỵ ḅ ḍ ḥ ḳ ḷ ḹ ṃ
Combining character: U+0323
What the dot below does
A dot under a letter. Vietnamese uses it for the heavy tone (ạ, ệ), Yoruba for open vowels (ẹ, ọ), and transliteration systems for retroflex sounds. Unicode encodes 44 precomposed letters with this mark as their first diacritic, and the combining form U+0323 can add it to any other letter.
Languages that use it
All lowercase letters with the dot below
Codes and shortcuts
| Letter | Name | Unicode | Alt code | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ẹ | e with dot below | U+1EB9 | — | — |
| ọ | o with dot below | U+1ECD | — | — |
| ṣ | s with dot below | U+1E63 | — | — |
| ạ | a with dot below | U+1EA1 | — | — |
| ị | i with dot below | U+1ECB | — | — |
| ụ | u with dot below | U+1EE5 | — | — |
| ỵ | y with dot below | U+1EF5 | — | — |
| ḅ | b with dot below | U+1E05 | — | — |
| ḍ | d with dot below | U+1E0D | — | — |
| ḥ | h with dot below | U+1E25 | — | — |
| ḳ | k with dot below | U+1E33 | — | — |
| ḷ | l with dot below | U+1E37 | — | — |
| ḹ | l with dot below and macron | U+1E39 | — | — |
| ṃ | m with dot below | U+1E43 | — | — |
| ṇ | n with dot below | U+1E47 | — | — |
| ṛ | r with dot below | U+1E5B | — | — |
| ṝ | r with dot below and macron | U+1E5D | — | — |
| ṩ | s with dot below and dot above | U+1E69 | — | — |
| ṭ | t with dot below | U+1E6D | — | — |
| ṿ | v with dot below | U+1E7F | — | — |
| ẉ | w with dot below | U+1E89 | — | — |
| ẓ | z with dot below | U+1E93 | — | — |
How to type it on any letter
On Windows, hold Alt and type the code from the table, or type the letter followed by U+0323 in Word and press Alt+X. On a Mac, use Unicode Hex Input: type the letter, then hold Option and type 0323. On a Chromebook, type the letter, then Ctrl+Shift+U, 0323, Space.
Copy every letter with the dot below
Related guides
- What Is the Acute accent? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
- What Is the Grave accent? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
- What Is the Circumflex? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
- What Is the Umlaut / diaeresis? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
- What Is the Tilde? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It