U+23D3 "⏓" Metrical Short over Long Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
⏓
U+23D3 "⏓" Metrical Short over Long is a symbol used in the field of poetic scansion to represent a metrical foot where a short syllable is placed over a long syllable, typically within a larger composite foot like a dactyl or an anapest. Its visual design features a small curved breve-like mark positioned above a longer horizontal line, indicating the relative duration of the two syllables in the meter. This character belongs to the Miscellaneous Technical block of Unicode and is primarily employed by scholars and editors when annotating classical or modern verse to show complex rhythmic patterns that cannot be captured by simpler single-syllable marks.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+23D3 |
| Version Added | 4.1 |
| Name | Metrical Short over Long |
| Block | Miscellaneous Technical |
| General Category | Other Symbol |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Other Neutral |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ⏓ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ⏓ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE2 0x8F 0x93 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x23D3 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000023D3 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u23d3 |
Unicode Properties
| NFC Quick Check | Yes |
| NFD Quick Check | Yes |
| NFKC Quick Check | Yes |
| NFKD Quick Check | Yes |
| Numeric Type | None |
| Numeric Value | NaN |
| Line Break | Alphabetic |
| Script | Common |
| Script Extensions | Common |
| Indic Syllabic Category | Other |
| Pattern Syntax | Yes |
| Vertical Orientation | Upright |
| Grapheme Base | Yes |
| Grapheme Cluster Break | Other |
| Word Break | Other |
| Sentence Break | Other |