U+2172 "ⅲ" Small Roman Numeral Three Unicode Character
U+2172 "ⅲ" Small Roman Numeral Three is a typographic representation of the number three in lowercase Roman numerals, often used in contexts where a smaller or more decorative form is desired, such as within page numbering, clock faces, or classical outlines. This character belongs to the Number Forms block in Unicode, which provides precomposed Roman numeral symbols for compatibility with legacy text and consistent rendering across different systems. Unlike the standard uppercase "III", the lowercase "ⅲ" offers a stylistic alternative that aligns visually with other text in certain historical or formal documents. It should not be confused with the Latin letter "i" repeated three times, as it is a distinct, atomic character intended for precise numeral representation.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+2172 |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Small Roman Numeral Three |
| Block | Number Forms |
| General Category | Letter Number |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
| Decomposition Type | Compat |
| Decomposition Mapping | "i" U+0069 Latin Small Letter I "i" U+0069 Latin Small Letter I "i" U+0069 Latin Small Letter I |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ⅲ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ⅲ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE2 0x85 0xB2 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x2172 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x00002172 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u2172 |