U+30A0 "゠" Katakana-Hiragana Double Hyphen Unicode Character

U+30A0 "゠" Katakana-Hiragana Double Hyphen is a rarely used punctuation mark in Japanese writing, primarily employed to connect words in compound terms or loanwords where a single hyphen might be insufficient or ambiguous. It visually resembles an equals sign but functions similarly to a double hyphen or dash, often appearing in older or specialized texts such as dictionaries, linguistic works, or transliterations to separate elements like foreign names or phrases within katakana or hiragana sequences. Unlike the regular hyphen used in Western scripts, this character is distinct to Japanese typography and helps maintain clarity in written Japanese without interrupting the flow of kana characters.

General Properties

Code Point	U+30A0
Version Added	3.2
Name	Katakana-Hiragana Double Hyphen
Block	Katakana
General Category	Dash Punctuation
Canonical Combining Class	Not Reordered
Bidirectional Class	Other Neutral

Encodings

HTML Decimal Encoding	゠
HTML Hex Encoding	゠
UTF-8 Encoding	0xE3 0x82 0xA0
UTF-16 Encoding	0x30A0
UTF-32 Encoding	0x000030A0
C/C++/Java Escape	\u30a0

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	Nonstarter
East Asian Width	Wide
Script	Common
Script Extensions	Hiragana Katakana
Indic Syllabic Category	Other
Dash	Yes
Vertical Orientation	Transformed Rotated
Grapheme Base	Yes
Grapheme Cluster Break	Other
Word Break	Katakana
Sentence Break	Other