Looking for a custom Unicode character in HTML

Question

I need to display a particular character in a webpage, but I have been unable to find anything online for it.

I need a gamma character with a dot on top of it. This is the closest I can get:

<p> &#947;&#775;</p>
<p>&#x3B3;&#775;</p>
<p>&gamma;&#775;</p>

As you can see, the dot is more to the right side. I need it on top.

This will be on a WordPress site.

• C3roe: This is what I'm seeing (Chromium browser on Mac), i.sstatic.net/CCQXXork.png - can't spot much wrong with that. Are you getting different results in a different browser / on a different OS?
• 0stone0: @C3roe Issue is visible on latest Chrome @ w11
• Pércoles Tiago Napivoski: Try mathjax.org
• Panagiotis Kanavos: What is this supposed to be? If you click on Run code snippet you get the actual Unicode characters: γ̇. That's not an image, those are the actual characters (plural). That's not a valid Greek character, and the question contains HTML escape sequences, not Unicode characters. Almost all web pages already use Unicode, including this page. I can type γ and Αυτό Εδώ directly, without using any escape sequences
• Panagiotis Kanavos: That's not math, it's just the Greek letter γ followed by a diacritic that CAN'T be used with Greek letters, a centered dot. Consonants don't have diacritics. The result will always be weird, just as the invalid accented γ ́ is weird while the valid ό is not. The proper way to enter math in HTML is to use the math tag, in this case probably using the mover tag. <math> <mover><mi>γ</mi><mo>.</mo></mover></math> should work

Answer 1

The question is trying an invalid combination, the Greek letter γ (which can be entered in any OS if a Greek keyboard is installed, or from the OS's Character selection utility) with a diacritic that just doesn't exist in Greek. Consonants accept no diacritics, not even accents, so while Αυτό Εδώ appears fine, γ ́ appears differently.

The proper way to display math in HTML is to actually enter the equations themselves using MathML tags inside the math tag.

In this case, the mover tag can display a dot over any letter

<math display="block">
 <mover accent="true">
 <mrow>
 <mi>γ</mi>
 </mrow>
 <mo>.</mo>
 </mover>
</math>

• CharlotteBuff: Just a small clarification: There are no "invalid combinations" of Unicode characters. The sequence "γ̇" (U+03B3, U+0307) is indeed the semantically correct representation of a small letter gamma with dot above if the need for such a letter ever arises in plain text (i.e., not mathematical notation). Whether it will be displayed as intended is entirely up to the font being used.
• Andj: Although γ̇ could be used in mathematical equations, it can also be found used in Americanist phonetic notation, so MathML may not be appropriate solution.
• Andj: Additionally the grapheme has been observed in Arvanitic, although ζ̇, κ̇, λ̇, ν̇, ρ̇, and χ̇ can be observed as well.

Answer 2

If this gamma character is convenient, it replaces the dot as you need. All the others I found, place to the right of the character with this type of coding.

<p>&#x263;&#x307;</p>
<p>&#611;&#x307;</p>

• Andj: Whether you use Greek gamma or Latin gamma, the correct positioning of the dot above diacritic is a font issue. It will render correctly with a Math font or an LCG font designed to support phonetic transcriptions or minority languages in the Greek script.

Answer 3

You can combine the gamma character with a combining dot above (U+0307) instead of U+0308 (diaeresis) or U+030A (ring).

Try this:

<p>&#x03B3;&#x0307;</p>

This renders as γ̇ (gamma with dot above).

• γ → γ (Greek small letter gamma)

• ̇ → ̇ (combining dot above)

If you need it styled more precisely (dot aligned), you can use CSS with position: relative and an extra span:

<p>
 <span style="position: relative; display: inline-block;">
 γ
 <span style="position: absolute; top: -0.6em; left: 0; font-size: 0.7em;">•</span>
 </span>
</p>

This gives you control over the dot’s position.

• mmm: what do you mean by "Recruiters see you’re already answering WordPress questions" ?
• Andj: A crude hack for what is essentially a font issue, and easily fixed by changing the font being used by the site.