U+208B "₋" Subscript Minus Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
₋
U+208B "₋" Subscript Minus is a typographic symbol designed for use in mathematical and scientific notations where a minus sign is required to appear in a subscript position, such as in chemical formulas like H₃O⁺ with a counterion or in numerical subscripts like a₋₂. It is part of the Superscripts and Subscripts block, standardized to ensure consistent rendering across different fonts and platforms, and it differs from the regular hyphen-minus or superscript minus signs because it is specifically positioned below the baseline to align with other subscript characters. This character helps maintain clarity in complex expressions where standard minus signs might be misinterpreted or disrupt the visual hierarchy of the notation.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+208B |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Subscript Minus |
| Unicode 1.0 Name | Subscript Hyphen-Minus |
| Block | Superscripts and Subscripts |
| General Category | Math Symbol |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | European Separator |
| Decomposition Type | Sub |
| Decomposition Mapping | "−" U+2212 Minus Sign |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ₋ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ₋ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE2 0x82 0x8B |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x208B |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x0000208B |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u208b |
Unicode Properties
| NFC Quick Check | Yes |
| NFD Quick Check | Yes |
| Numeric Type | None |
| Numeric Value | NaN |
| Line Break | Alphabetic |
| Changes When NFKC Casefolded | Yes |
| NFKC Casefold | "−" U+2212 Minus Sign |
| NFKC Simple Casefold | "−" U+2212 Minus Sign |
| Script | Common |
| Script Extensions | Common |
| Indic Syllabic Category | Other |
| ID Compat Math Continue | Yes |
| Dash | Yes |
| Math | Yes |
| Vertical Orientation | Rotated |
| Grapheme Base | Yes |
| Grapheme Cluster Break | Other |
| Word Break | Other |
| Sentence Break | Other |