As of Unicode version 17.0, there are 297,334 assigned characters with code points, covering 172 modern and historical scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. As it is to list all of these characters in a single page, this list is limited to a subset of the most important characters for English-language readers, with links to other pages which list the supplementary characters. Accordingly, this article lists the 1,062 characters in the Multilingual European Character Set 2 (MES-2) subset, and some additional related characters. (The term Unicode character was coined to categorise characters that do not also have ASCII code points.)
Character reference overview
HTML and XML provide ways to reference Unicode characters when the characters themselves either cannot or should not be used. A numeric character reference refers to a character by its Universal Character Set/Unicode code point, and a character entity reference refers to a character by a predefined name.
A numeric character reference uses the format
<code>&#</code>nnnn<code>;</code>
or
<code>&#x</code>hhhh<code>;</code>
where nnnn is the code point in decimal form, and hhhh is the code point in hexadecimal form. The x must be lowercase in XML documents. The nnnn or hhhh may be any number of digits and may include leading zeros. The hhhh may mix uppercase and lowercase, though uppercase is the usual style.
In contrast, a character entity reference refers to a character by the name of an entity which has the desired character as its replacement text. The entity must either be predefined (built into the markup language) or explicitly declared in a Document Type Definition (DTD). The format is the same as for any entity reference:
<code>&</code>name<code>;</code>
where name is the case-sensitive name of the entity. The semicolon is required.
Because numbers are harder for humans to remember than names, character entity references are most often written by humans, while numeric character references are most often produced by computer programs.
Control codes
65 characters, including DEL. All belong to the common script.
Footnotes:
<sup>1</sup> Control-C has typically been used as a "break" or "interrupt" key.
<sup>2</sup> Control-D has been used to signal "end of file" for text typed in at the terminal on Unix / Linux systems. Windows, MS-DOS, and older minicomputers used Control-Z for this purpose.
<sup>3</sup> Control-G is an artifact of the days when teletypes were in use. Important messages could be signaled by striking the bell on the teletype. This was carried over on PCs by generating a buzz sound.
<sup>4</sup> Line feed is used for "end of line" in text files on Unix / Linux systems.
<sup>5</sup> Carriage Return (accompanied by line feed, and thus usually written as 'CRLF') is used as "end of line" character by Windows, MS-DOS, and most minicomputers other than Unix- / Linux-based systems. Classic Mac OS and other vintage OS used CR only.
<sup>6</sup> Control-O has been the "discard output" key. Output is not sent to the terminal, but discarded, until another Control-o is typed.
<sup>7</sup> Control-Q has been used to tell a host computer to resume sending output after it was stopped by Control-S.
<sup>8</sup> Control-S has been used to tell a host computer to postpone sending output to the terminal. Output is suspended until restarted by the Control-Q key.
<sup>9</sup> Control-U was originally used by Digital Equipment Corporation computers to cancel the current line of typed-in text. Other manufacturers used Control-X for this purpose.
<sup>10</sup> Control-X was commonly used to cancel a line of input typed in at the terminal.
<sup>11</sup> Control-Z has commonly been used on minicomputers, Windows and MS-DOS systems to indicate "end of file" either on a terminal or in a text file. Unix / Linux systems use Control-D to indicate end-of-file at a terminal.
Latin script
The Unicode Standard (version ) classifies 1,492 characters as belonging to the Latin script.
Basic Latin
95 characters; the 52 alphabet characters belong to the Latin script. The remaining 43 belong to the common script.<br /> The 33 characters classified as ASCII Punctuation & Symbols are also sometimes referred to as ASCII special characters. Often only these characters (and not other Unicode punctuation) are what is meant when an organization says a password "requires punctuation marks".
Latin-1 Supplement
96 characters; the 62 letters, and two ordinal indicators belong to the Latin script. The remaining 32 belong to the common script.
Latin Extended-A
128 characters; all belong to the Latin script.
Latin Extended-B
208 characters; all belong to the Latin script; 33 in the MES-2 subset.
Latin Extended Additional
256 characters; all belong to the Latin script; 23 in the MES-2 subset.
Additional Latin Extended
Phonetic scripts
IPA Extensions
96 characters; all belong to the Latin script; three in the MES-2 subset.
Spacing modifier letters
80 characters; 15 in the MES-2 subset.
Phonetic Extensions
Combining marks
Greek and Coptic
144 code points; 135 assigned characters; 85 in the MES-2 subset.
Greek Extended
For polytonic orthography. 256 code points; 233 assigned characters, all in the MES-2 subset (#670 â 902).
Cyrillic
256 characters; 191 in the MES-2 subset.
Cyrillic supplements
Armenian
Semitic languages
Arabic
Hebrew
Syriac
Mandaic
Samaritan
Thaana
Brahmic (Indic) scripts
The range from U+0900 to U+0DFF includes Devanagari, Bengali script, Gurmukhi, Gujarati script, Odia alphabet, Tamil script, Telugu script, Kannada script, Malayalam script, and Sinhala script.
Devanagari
Bengali and Assamese
Gurmukhi
Gujarati
Oriya
Tamil
Telugu
Kannada
Malayalam
Sinhala
Other Brahmic scripts
Other Brahmic and Indic scripts in Unicode include:
Other South and Central Asian writing systems
Southeast Asian writing systems
Georgian
African scripts
Ge'ez/Ethiopic script
Other African scripts
American scripts
Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
Other American scripts
Mongolian
Unicode symbols
General Punctuation
112 code points; 111 assigned characters; 24 in the MES-2 subset.
Superscripts and Subscripts
Currency Symbols
Letterlike Symbols
Number Forms
Arrows
Mathematical symbols
Miscellaneous Technical
Control Pictures
Optical Character Recognition
Enclosed Alphanumerics
Box Drawing
Block Elements
Geometric Shapes
Symbols for Legacy Computing
Symbols for Legacy Computing Supplement
Miscellaneous Symbols
Miscellaneous Symbols Supplement
Dingbats
East Asian writing systems
CJK Symbols and Punctuation
Hiragana
Katakana
Bopomofo
Hangul Jamo and Compatibility Jamo
Kanbun
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months
CJK Compatibility
CJK Compatibility Forms
CJK Unified Ideographs
CJK Radicals
Other East Asian writing systems
Alphabetic Presentation Forms
Ancient and historic scripts
Shavian
Notational systems
Braille
Music
Shorthand
Sutton SignWriting
Emoji
Alchemical symbols
Game symbols
Mahjong Tiles
Domino Tiles
Playing Cards
Chess Symbols
Special areas and format characters
See also
References
External links