Copy œ or Œ, the oe symbol, or type it: Alt+0156 for the small letter, Alt+0140 for the capital.
Oe Character
œLatin small ligature oeU+0153Ready to copy
13 oe characters and look-alikes. Tap any value to copy it.
13 oe characters and look-alikes. A character and its name both copy the character. A code copies the code.
Character
Name
Code point
Alt code
Option keys
HTML
LaTeX
U+0153. The small oe ligature, o and e joined in one character; ethel is its other name. French spells cœur, heart, with it. Alt+0156, Option+Q on the U.S. layout, œ in HTML, \oe in LaTeX. The older Alt code table has no œ.
U+0152. The capital, as in the French word Œuvre at the start of a sentence. Alt+0140, Option+Shift+Q on the U.S. layout, Œ in HTML, \OE in LaTeX.
U+0276. A capital shape at the height of a small letter. A phonetic sign in its own right: Unicode glosses it low front rounded vowel.
The fallback spelling: an o, then an e, both on every keyboard.
U+00F6. An o under two dots: a separate letter, not a form of œ. Alt+148, Alt+0246, ö in HTML.
Heart, as French spells it: four characters, the second one œ.
U+1D14. œ rotated half a turn, a phonetic letter; some fonts lay it on its side.
U+A7F9. A superscript œ. Unicode glosses it labialized: open-rounded.
U+315A. Korean has a vowel romanized oe; this letter writes it.
U+06C6. A letter of the Arabic script named oe. Unicode lists Uyghur, Kurdish, Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Bosnian for it.
U+16AF. A rune named oe in the Runic block.
U+16DF. The rune that œ stands for when Old English runes are written in Latin letters; ethel is in its Unicode name.
The oe character is œ, capital Œ: a ligature of o and e. French spells cœur and sœur with it. Its Alt code is 0156, or 0140 for the capital, and Option+Q types it on the U.S. layout.
Read the full guide
Typing œ and Œ
Hold Alt and type 0156 on the number pad for œ, or 0140 for Œ. The zero matters: the older Alt code table has no oe letter, and Alt+156 types £. Option+Q types œ on the U.S. layout, and Shift makes it the capital. A web page writes œ and Œ, LaTeX \oe and \OE.
A ligature that French kept
Medieval Latin used the oe ligature in words borrowed from Greek. French still writes it, in cœur, sœur and œuf, and calls it e dans l’o, e in the o. The phonetic alphabet uses œ as the symbol for a vowel.
Alt+156, without the zero, types £ and not œ.
ö and ø are separate letters, not forms of the oe symbol.
Old English runes are written out with œ for the rune ᛟ.
Questions and answers
What is the Alt code for the oe ligature?
Alt+0156 for the small œ and Alt+0140 for the capital Œ, typed on the number pad with the zero first. Both come from code page 1252; code page 437 has no oe letter.
What is the œ letter called?
Ethel, or simply the oe ligature. In Unicode it is Latin small ligature oe, U+0153, with the capital at U+0152. French calls it e dans l’o.
Is œ a letter or a symbol?
It is a ligature: the letters o and e joined in one character. French uses it as a spelling of its own in words such as œuf, and phonetic writing uses it as the symbol for a vowel.
How do I write the oe character in HTML?
œ for œ and Œ for Œ. By number they are œ and Œ.
All 13 oe characters and look-alikes
Start here 6
cœurCœur, a French word with œHeart, as French spells it: four characters, the second one œ.
ŒLatin capital ligature oeU+0152. The capital, as in the French word Œuvre at the start of a sentence. Alt+0140, Option+Shift+Q on the U.S. layout, Œ in HTML, \OE in LaTeX.
ɶLatin letter small capital oeU+0276. A capital shape at the height of a small letter. A phonetic sign in its own right: Unicode glosses it low front rounded vowel.
öLatin small letter o with diaeresisU+00F6. An o under two dots: a separate letter, not a form of œ. Alt+148, Alt+0246, ö in HTML.
œLatin small ligature oeU+0153. The small oe ligature, o and e joined in one character; ethel is its other name. French spells cœur, heart, with it. Alt+0156, Option+Q on the U.S. layout, œ in HTML, \oe in LaTeX. The older Alt code table has no œ.
oeo and e, as two lettersThe fallback spelling: an o, then an e, both on every keyboard.
The ligature œ 1
œufŒuf, a French word with œEgg, as French spells it, opening with œ.
Phonetic forms 2
ᴔLatin small letter turned oeU+1D14. œ rotated half a turn, a phonetic letter; some fonts lay it on its side.
ꟹModifier letter small ligature oeU+A7F9. A superscript œ. Unicode glosses it labialized: open-rounded.
Named oe in other scripts 3
ۆArabic letter oeU+06C6. A letter of the Arabic script named oe. Unicode lists Uyghur, Kurdish, Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Bosnian for it.
ㅚHangul letter oeU+315A. Korean has a vowel romanized oe; this letter writes it.
ᚯRunic letter oeU+16AF. A rune named oe in the Runic block.
Not the oe ligature 1
ᛟRunic letter othalan ethel oU+16DF. The rune that œ stands for when Old English runes are written in Latin letters; ethel is in its Unicode name.