U+31EF "㇯" Ideographic Description Character Subtraction Unicode Character

U+31EF "㇯" Ideographic Description Character Subtraction is a specialized symbol used within the Unicode standard to describe the composition of East Asian ideographs, particularly for Chinese characters, by indicating that one component is graphically subtracted from another. Unlike a standard writing character, it functions as a notation in character description sequences, allowing dictionary compilers, linguists, and software to specify how a complex CJK ideograph is structurally formed—for example, showing that a character consists of a certain radical or element with a part taken away. Its inclusion in the Ideographic Description Characters block helps preserve the precise anatomy of historical or rare characters without needing dedicated encoded glyphs, supporting accurate text processing and font development for complex script systems.

General Properties

Code Point	U+31EF
Version Added	15.1
Name	Ideographic Description Character Subtraction
Block	CJK Strokes
General Category	Other Symbol
Canonical Combining Class	Not Reordered
Bidirectional Class	Other Neutral

Encodings

HTML Decimal Encoding	㇯
HTML Hex Encoding	㇯
UTF-8 Encoding	0xE3 0x87 0xAF
UTF-16 Encoding	0x31EF
UTF-32 Encoding	0x000031EF
C/C++/Java Escape	\u31ef

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	Ideographic
East Asian Width	Wide
Script	Common
Script Extensions	Han Tangut
Indic Syllabic Category	Other
Vertical Orientation	Upright
Grapheme Base	Yes
Grapheme Cluster Break	Other
Word Break	Other
Sentence Break	Other
IDS Binary Operator	Yes