As part of my work on the National Gallery‘s Collections Information Project, I’ve commissioned the conversion of the Gallery’s paintings catalogues into TEI-compliant XML, so that we can reuse these valuable texts in different contexts. One of the questions our suppliers asked was how to encode a quotation that featured a series of abbreviations that were rendered as superscript characters. Looking into this, I realised that there doesn’t seem to be an easily-available resource on the web that lists both the relevant Unicode characters for superscript letters, and their code points. In the hope that someone else will also find this useful, here they are.

Superscript letters in Unicode

Note that I’ve not included alternative forms, or forms with diacritics, in this list; neither have I listed letters in non-Latin alphabets, nor numerals. This list is based upon the very handy Wikipedia page on Unicode subscripts and superscripts which, although it focusses most on numerals, contains more information on all these subjects. Combining characters are shown with the dotted circle placeholder,  ◌ (U+25CC), to indicate placement. As always with Unicode, what you actually see will depend upon the capabilities of the fonts available to you.

	Superscript				Combining Superscript
Letter	Code Block	Glyph	Code Point	XML encoding	Code Block	Glyph	Code Point	XML encoding
a1	Phonetic Extensions	ᵃ	U+1D43	ᵃ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͣ	U+0363	ͣ
b	Phonetic Extensions	ᵇ	U+1D47	ᵇ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷨ	U+1DE8	ᷨ
c	Phonetic Extensions Supplement	ᶜ	U+1D9C	ᶜ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͨ	U+0368	ͨ
d	Phonetic Extensions	ᵈ	U+1D48	ᵈ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͩ	U+0369	ͩ
e	Phonetic Extensions	ᵉ	U+1D49	ᵉ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͤ	U+0364	ͤ
f	Phonetic Extensions Supplement	ᶠ	U+1DA0	ᶠ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷫ	U+1DEB	ᷫ
g	Phonetic Extensions	ᵍ	U+1D4D	ᵍ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷚ	U+1DDA	ᷚ
h	Spacing Modifier Letters	ʰ	U+02B0	ʰ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͪ	U+036A	ͪ
i	Superscripts and Subscripts	ⁱ	U+2071	ⁱ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͥ	U+0365	ͥ
j	Spacing Modifier Letters	ʲ	U+02B2	ʲ
k	Phonetic Extensions	ᵏ	U+1D4F	ᵏ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷜ	U+1DDC	ᷜ
l	Spacing Modifier Letters	ˡ	U+02E1	ˡ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷝ	U+1DDD	ᷝ
m	Phonetic Extensions	ᵐ	U+1D50	ᵐ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͫ	U+036B	ͫ
n	Superscripts and Subscripts	ⁿ	U+207F	ⁿ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷠ	U+1DE0	ᷠ
o2	Phonetic Extensions	ᵒ	U+1D52	ᵒ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͦ	U+0366	ͦ
p	Phonetic Extensions	ᵖ	U+1D56	ᵖ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷮ	U+1DEE	ᷮ
q	Latin Extended-F	𐞥	U+107A5	𐞥
r	Spacing Modifier Letters	ʳ	U+02B3	ʳ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͬ	U+036C	ͬ
s	Spacing Modifier Letters	ˢ	U+02E2	ˢ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷤ	U+1DE4	ᷤ
t	Phonetic Extensions	ᵗ	U+1D57	ᵗ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͭ	U+036D	ͭ
u	Phonetic Extensions	ᵘ	U+1D58	ᵘ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͧ	U+0367	ͧ
v	Phonetic Extensions	ᵛ	U+1D5B	ᵛ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͮ	U+036E	ͮ
w	Spacing Modifier Letters	ʷ	U+02B7	ʷ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷱ	U+1DF1	ᷱ
x	Spacing Modifier Letters	ˣ	U+02E3	ˣ	Combining Diacritical Marks	◌ͯ	U+036F	ͯ
y	Spacing Modifier Letters	ʸ	U+02B8	ʸ
z	Phonetic Extensions Supplement	ᶻ	U+1DBB	ᶻ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷦ	U+1DE6	ᷦ
æ					Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷔ	U+1DD4	ᷔ
œ	Latin Extended-D	ꟹ	U+A7F9	ꟹ
A	Phonetic Extensions	ᴬ	U+1D2C	ᴬ
B	Phonetic Extensions	ᴮ	U+1D2D	ᴭ
C	Latin Extended-D	ꟲ	U+A7FD	ꟲ
D	Phonetic Extensions	ᴰ	U+1D30	ᴰ
E	Phonetic Extensions	ᴱ	U+1D31	ᴱ
F	Latin Extended-D	ꟳ	U+A7F3	ꟳ
G	Phonetic Extensions	ᴳ	U+1D33	ᴳ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷛ	U+1DDB	ᷛ
H	Phonetic Extensions	ᴴ	U+1D34	ᴴ
I	Phonetic Extensions	ᴵ	U+1D35	ᴵ
J	Phonetic Extensions	ᴶ	U+1D36	ᴶ
K	Phonetic Extensions	ᴷ	U+1D37	ᴷ
L	Phonetic Extensions	ᴸ	U+1D38	ᴸ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷞ	U+1DDE	ᷞ
M	Phonetic Extensions	ᴹ	U+1D39	ᴹ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷟ	U+1DDF	ᷟ
N	Phonetic Extensions	ᴺ	U+1D3A	ᴺ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷡ	U+1DE1	ᷡ
O	Phonetic Extensions	ᴼ	U+1D3C	ᴼ
P	Phonetic Extensions	ᴾ	U+1D3E	ᴾ
Q	Latin Extended-D	ꟴ	U+A7F4	ꟴ
R	Phonetic Extensions	ᴿ	U+1D3F	ᴿ	Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement	◌ᷢ	U+1DE2	ᷢ
S
T	Phonetic Extensions	ᵀ	U+1D40	ᵀ
U	Phonetic Extensions	ᵁ	U+1D41	ᵁ
V	Latin Extended-C	ⱽ	U+2C7D	ⱽ
W	Phonetic Extensions	ᵂ	U+1D42	ᵂ
X
Y	Latin Extended-F	ʏ	U+107B2	𐞲
Z
Æ	Phonetic Extensions	ᴭ	U+1D2D	ᴭ

Characters resembling Latin characters

The following characters resemble Latin characters in form but are, semantically, distinct. They are given here against the Latin characters they resemble, but you should be aware that they have distinct and specific meanings of their own, specified in the final column. They are all found in the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics code block (abbreviated to ‘Canadian Syllabics’ below).

Letter	Code Block	Glyph	Code Point	XML encoding	Character
b	Canadian Syllabics	ᒃ	U+1483	ᒃ	K
d	Canadian Syllabics	ᒄ	U+1484	ᒄ	KW
h	Canadian Syllabics	ᑋ	U+144B	ᑋ	Carrier H
o	Canadian Syllabics	ᐤ	U+1424	ᐤ	Final Ring
u	Canadian Syllabics	ᐡ	U+1421	ᐡ	Final Bottom Half Ring
w	Canadian Syllabics	ᐜ	U+141C	ᐜ	AI
n	Canadian Syllabics	ᐢ	U+1422	ᐢ	Final Top Half Ring
C	Canadian Syllabics	ᑦ	U+1466	ᑦ	T
I	Canadian Syllabics	ᑊ	U+144A	ᑊ	West-Cree P
L	Canadian Syllabics	ᒻ	U+14BB	ᒻ	M
S	Canadian Syllabics	ᔆ	U+1506	ᔆ	Athapascan S
T	Canadian Syllabics	ᐪ	U+142A	ᐪ	Final Down Tack
X	Canadian Syllabics	ᕽ	U+157D	ᕽ	HK

Unicode code blocks featuring superscript letters

Links are to the official Unicode code charts, which are published as PDFs:

• Latin Extended-C
• Latin Extended-D
• Latin Extended-F
• Phonetic Extensions
• Phonetic Extensions Supplement
• Spacing Modifier Letters
• Superscripts and Subscripts
• Combining Diacritical Marks
• Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement

Updates

• 2 June 2022: capital letters C, F and Q added (with thanks to Debbie Anderson for bringing them to my attention)
• 24 November 2022: lower case letter q added (with thanks to Florian Cauvin)
• 6 March 2023: upper case letter Y added (with thanks to Anatole Nguyen)
• 5 November 2024: Characters resembling
  Latin characters added (with thanks to Markus Amolsch)

Notes

1. Cf. the feminine ordinal indicator, U+00AA, ª, in the Latin-1 Supplement code block, which may render with an underline, depending on font. [↩]
2. Cf. the masculine ordinal indicator, U+00BA, º, in the Latin-1 Supplement code block, which may render with an underline, depending on font. [↩]