Superscript letters in Unicode

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   
LetterCode BlockGlyphCode PointXML encodingCode BlockGlyphCode PointXML encoding
a1
Phonetic ExtensionsU+1D43ᵃCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͣU+0363ͣ
bPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D47ᵇCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷨU+1DE8ᷨ
cPhonetic Extensions SupplementU+1D9CᶜCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͨU+0368ͨ
dPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D48ᵈCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͩU+0369ͩ
ePhonetic ExtensionsU+1D49ᵉCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͤU+0364ͤ
fPhonetic Extensions SupplementU+1DA0ᶠCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷫU+1DEBᷫ
gPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D4DᵍCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷚU+1DDAᷚ
hSpacing Modifier LettersʰU+02B0ʰCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͪU+036Aͪ
iSuperscripts and SubscriptsU+2071ⁱCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͥU+0365ͥ
jSpacing Modifier LettersʲU+02B2ʲ    
kPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D4FᵏCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷜU+1DDCᷜ
lSpacing Modifier LettersˡU+02E1ˡCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷝU+1DDDᷝ
mPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D50ᵐCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͫU+036Bͫ
nSuperscripts and SubscriptsU+207FⁿCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷠU+1DE0ᷠ
o2
Phonetic ExtensionsU+1D52ᵒCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͦU+0366ͦ
pPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D56ᵖCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷮU+1DEEᷮ
qLatin Extended-F 𐞥 U+107A5 𐞥    
rSpacing Modifier LettersʳU+02B3ʳCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͬU+036Cͬ
sSpacing Modifier LettersˢU+02E2ˢCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷤU+1DE4ᷤ
tPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D57ᵗCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͭU+036Dͭ
uPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D58ᵘCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͧU+0367ͧ
vPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D5BᵛCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͮU+036Eͮ
wSpacing Modifier LettersʷU+02B7ʷCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷱU+1DF1ᷱ
xSpacing Modifier LettersˣU+02E3ˣCombining Diacritical Marks◌ͯU+036Fͯ
ySpacing Modifier LettersʸU+02B8ʸ    
zPhonetic Extensions SupplementU+1DBBᶻCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷦU+1DE6ᷦ
æ    Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷔU+1DD4ᷔ
œLatin Extended-DU+A7F9ꟹ    
APhonetic ExtensionsU+1D2Cᴬ    
BPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D2Dᴭ    
CLatin Extended-DU+A7FDꟲ    
DPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D30ᴰ    
EPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D31ᴱ    
FLatin Extended-DU+A7F3ꟳ    
GPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D33ᴳCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷛU+1DDBᷛ
HPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D34ᴴ    
IPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D35ᴵ    
JPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D36ᴶ    
KPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D37ᴷ    
LPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D38ᴸCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷞU+1DDEᷞ
MPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D39ᴹCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷟU+1DDFᷟ
NPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D3AᴺCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷡU+1DE1ᷡ
OPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D3Cᴼ    
PPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D3Eᴾ    
QLatin Extended-DU+A7F4ꟴ    
RPhonetic ExtensionsᴿU+1D3FᴿCombining Diacritical Marks Supplement◌ᷢU+1DE2ᷢ
S        
TPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D40ᵀ    
UPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D41ᵁ    
VLatin Extended-CU+2C7Dⱽ    
WPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D42ᵂ    
X        
Y Latin Extended-Fʏ U+107B2 𐞲    
Z        
ÆPhonetic ExtensionsU+1D2Dᴭ    

Unicode code blocks featuring superscript letters

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

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)

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. []