Schwa Symbol

Copy ə, the schwa symbol, or the capital Ə; no key and no Alt code types it.

Schwa Symbol

əLatin small letter schwaU+0259Ready to copy

17 schwas and look-alikes. Tap any value to copy it.

17 schwas and look-alikes. A character and its name both copy the character. A code copies the code.
CharacterNameCode pointHTML
U+0259. The schwa, an e turned upside down. In phonetic writing it is a mid central vowel; some alphabets use it as a letter. Neither Alt code table has it, and it has no HTML name: a web page writes ə.
U+018F. The capital, for alphabets where schwa is a letter, Azerbaijani among them. It is U+018F, far from the small letter in the code charts.
U+025A. A schwa with a small hook at its right: the rhotacized schwa, in Unicode’s words.
U+1D4A. A raised schwa the size of a superscript. In Unicode since version 4.0 (2003).
U+2094. The schwa as a subscript, sitting low beside the letter it follows.
U+01DD. The same shape under another code: the turned e of the Pan-Nigerian alphabet. Unicode’s note beside it: every other use of schwa is 0259.

Next step ǝ and ɐ among the upside down letters

How it works

The schwa symbol is ə, an e turned upside down, U+0259. It stands for a weak, unstressed vowel in phonetic writing and is a letter in some alphabets. No Alt code table holds it, so it is one to copy.

Read the full guide

Why the schwa Alt code returns Y

Alt codes type the characters of two old code tables, and neither has a schwa. Typing its number, 601, on the keypad does not help in programs that keep the old behavior: a code above 255 wraps around, and 601 returns Y. Other programs take 601 as the code point. With a Compose key, Compose, e, e types ə.

A sound and a letter

In the International Phonetic Alphabet ə is a mid central vowel, and schwa is the name for a reduced, unstressed one. The word comes from Hebrew shva by way of German. Azerbaijani uses Ə and ə as a letter, for a vowel like the a of cat.

  • ǝ, the turned e of the Pan-Nigerian alphabet, looks the same but is U+01DD.
  • ә is the Cyrillic schwa, U+04D9: another character with the same shape.
  • ɚ, the schwa with a hook, is the rhotacized schwa.

Questions and answers

What is the Alt code for the schwa symbol?

There is none. The two Alt code tables have no schwa, small or capital, and in programs that keep the old behavior typing 601 on the keypad returns Y. Copy ə, or use Compose, e, e where a Compose key is set up.

How do I get the schwa symbol on a keyboard?

No key of the U.S. keyboard carries it. Copy and paste ə, or enter it by code point where a program allows that: it is U+0259, which is 601 in decimal.

Is the schwa an upside down e?

In shape, yes: the small ə and the capital Ə are both based on a turned e. As characters they are separate from e, and from ǝ, the turned e of the Pan-Nigerian alphabet.

What does the schwa symbol stand for?

A mid central vowel. The name schwa is given to a reduced, unstressed one, such as the unstressed English vowel that phonetic writing transcribes ə.

All 17 schwas and look-alikes

Start here 6

  • Latin capital letter schwa U+018F. The capital, for alphabets where schwa is a letter, Azerbaijani among them. It is U+018F, far from the small letter in the code charts.
  • Latin small letter schwa U+0259. The schwa, an e turned upside down. In phonetic writing it is a mid central vowel; some alphabets use it as a letter. Neither Alt code table has it, and it has no HTML name: a web page writes ə.
  • Latin small letter schwa with hook U+025A. A schwa with a small hook at its right: the rhotacized schwa, in Unicode’s words.
  • Latin small letter turned e U+01DD. The same shape under another code: the turned e of the Pan-Nigerian alphabet. Unicode’s note beside it: every other use of schwa is 0259.
  • Latin subscript small letter schwa U+2094. The schwa as a subscript, sitting low beside the letter it follows.
  • Modifier letter small schwa U+1D4A. A raised schwa the size of a superscript. In Unicode since version 4.0 (2003).

Phonetic forms 3

  • Latin small letter reversed e U+0258. An e facing left, the sign for a neighboring vowel: upper-mid central unrounded.
  • Latin small letter reversed open e U+025C. A 3-shaped letter, the sign for the lower-mid central unrounded vowel.
  • Latin small letter schwa with retroflex hook U+1D95. A schwa whose tail curls down below the line, the retroflex hook.
Show all 17 schwas and look-alikes (8 more)

Cyrillic schwa 4

  • Cyrillic capital letter schwa U+04D8. Cyrillic capital: it matches Ə stroke for stroke, under a different number.
  • Cyrillic capital letter schwa with diaeresis U+04DA. The upper-case partner of ӛ.
  • Cyrillic small letter schwa U+04D9. The schwa of the Cyrillic script: U+04D9, where the Latin one is U+0259. Searching for either misses the other.
  • Cyrillic small letter schwa with diaeresis U+04DB. The Cyrillic schwa under a diaeresis.

Not the schwa 2

  • Latin capital letter reversed e U+018E. The capital that pairs with ǝ: an E facing left, where the capital schwa is a large ə.
  • Latin small letter turned a U+0250. An inverted a. Phonetic writing uses it for a vowel lower in the mouth than schwa.

May be an empty box 2

  • Latin small letter a reversed-schwa U+AB31. A ligature of a and a mirror-image schwa. It arrived with Unicode 7.0 (2014) and shows as an empty box where the font lacks it.
  • Modifier letter Cyrillic small schwa U+1E04B. A raised Cyrillic schwa, the newest row here: Unicode 15.0 (2022).

How this list was compiled: Names, and the code points they belong to, are checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and printed in sentence case. Notes that begin Unicode's note quote NamesList.txt of the same version (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt); the version a character was added in is from DerivedAge.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/DerivedAge.txt), block names are from Blocks.txt, and the years are from https://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html. Alt codes are from the code page 437 table (https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/PC/CP437.TXT), the PC graphics table for codes 1 to 31 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MISC/IBMGRAPH.TXT) and the code page 1252 table (https://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1252.TXT). Option keys are those of the U.S. keyboard layout as CLDR records it (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/release-42/keyboards/osx/en-t-k0-osx.xml); other layouts differ. HTML entity names are from https://html.spec.whatwg.org/entities.json. LaTeX macros are listed only when LaTeX's own fontdef.dtx, ltoutenc.dtx or utf8ienc.dtx (https://github.com/latex3/latex2e/tree/develop/base) or the amssymb source (https://ctan.org/pkg/amsfonts) defines them, matched to a code point through unicode-math-table.tex (https://github.com/latex3/unicode-math). Compose sequences are from the X.org en_US.UTF-8 Compose file (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libx11/-/blob/master/nls/en_US.UTF-8/Compose.pre). The rows are chosen from the 13 characters whose Unicode name has the word schwa, found by a search of UnicodeData.txt, with the turned e, the reversed e forms and the turned a added. What the sign stands for and where its name comes from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_central_vowel; the letter and the alphabets that use it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa_(letter); what an Alt code above 255 does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_code. All read on 2026-10-02 and restated in this site's own words. The Start here group and the order are this site's own choice. Licence: own work (facts from the Unicode Character Database, Unicode License v3, and from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, restated in this site's own words; aliases and notes marked as Unicode's are quoted from NamesList.txt, Copyright © 1991-2026 Unicode, Inc., https://www.unicode.org/license.txt)

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