Unicode Subscript Letters: The Complete List
Subscript letters are the characters that sit below the baseline — ₐ, ₑ, ₕ, ₖ, ₗ, ₘ, ₙ, ₒ, ₚ, ₛ, ₜ, ₓ — originally added to Unicode for mathematical and chemical notation. There is no full Latin subscript alphabet; coverage stops around 11 letters, which is why typing “subscript q” returns nothing. This is the complete reference, organised by block, with code points and an honest map of the gaps.
If you just want to type subscript text, the Subscript Generator gives you the live alphabet. If you want to know what is actually in Unicode, keep reading.
Why the alphabet is incomplete
Subscript letters were added to Unicode by chemists and mathematicians, not by typographers designing a parallel alphabet. The first subscript characters came in with the original 1991 standard, drawn from a need to render chemical formulas inline: H₂O, CO₂, C₆H₁₂O₆. Letters that occur in real chemical formulas were prioritised. Letters that don’t — b, d, f, g, j, q, y, z — were left out.
A few more letters arrived in later Unicode versions, scattered across different blocks. The result is a fragmented, partly-redundant collection. There is no single “subscript Latin alphabet” in Unicode. There is a small set of subscript characters that happen to cover most English words, assembled from three or four different blocks, with deliberate gaps where Unicode never added a character.
This is also why a “subscript generator” is a useful tool and a “subscript reference” is useful at the same time: the gap is the trap, and knowing the gap is the only way to avoid being surprised by it.
The complete map
Subscript letters are split across two Unicode blocks plus a few isolated characters in older blocks.
Subscripts block (U+2080–U+208E) — added in Unicode 1.0, this is the “primary” subscript block. The 4 digits and 11 letters below are mostly here.
| Char | Code | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ₀ | U+2080 | Subscript Zero |
| ₁ | U+2081 | Subscript One |
| ₂ | U+2082 | Subscript Two |
| ₃ | U+2083 | Subscript Three |
| ₄ | U+2084 | Subscript Four |
| ₅ | U+2085 | Subscript Five |
| ₆ | U+2086 | Subscript Six |
| ₇ | U+2087 | Subscript Seven |
| ₈ | U+2088 | Subscript Eight |
| ₉ | U+2089 | Subscript Nine |
| ₐ | U+2090 | Latin Subscript Small Letter A |
| ₑ | U+2091 | Latin Subscript Small Letter E |
| ₕ | U+2095 | Latin Subscript Small Letter H |
| ᵢ | U+1D62 | Latin Subscript Small Letter I |
| ⱼ | U+2C7C | Latin Subscript Small Letter J |
| ₖ | U+2096 | Latin Subscript Small Letter K |
| ₗ | U+2097 | Latin Subscript Small Letter L |
| ₘ | U+2098 | Latin Subscript Small Letter M |
| ₙ | U+2099 | Latin Subscript Small Letter N |
| ₒ | U+2092 | Latin Subscript Small Letter O |
| ₚ | U+209A | Latin Subscript Small Letter P |
| ᵣ | U+1D63 | Latin Subscript Small Letter R |
| ₛ | U+209B | Latin Subscript Small Letter S |
| ₜ | U+209C | Latin Subscript Small Letter T |
| ᵤ | U+1D64 | Latin Subscript Small Letter U |
| ᵥ | U+1D65 | Latin Subscript Small Letter V |
| ₓ | U+2093 | Latin Subscript Small Letter X |
A few of these live in adjacent blocks rather than the U+2080 range — i, j, r, u, v are in the Phonetic Extensions block (U+1D00–U+1D7F) because Unicode consolidated the “small” Latin alphabets there. The official names all say “subscript small letter”, and they render as subscripts, so they function as a single alphabet from a user’s point of view.
Subscript diacritics (U+1D62–U+1D96 region and below) — combining marks that pull the following character down. These are not letters by themselves; they sit under the previous character and let you build a subscript from any letter. Less commonly used; useful when you genuinely need a subscript b (U+1D66 “Latin Subscript Small Letter B” exists in the Phonetic Extensions block) or f or g — the letters that don’t have dedicated subscript code points.
| Char | Code | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ᵦ | U+1D66 | Greek Subscript Small Letter Beta (used as a Latin b) |
| ᵧ | U+1D67 | Greek Subscript Small Letter Gamma (used as a Latin g) |
| ᵨ | U+1D68 | Greek Subscript Small Letter Rho (used as a Latin r) |
| ᵩ | U+1D69 | Greek Subscript Small Letter Phi (used as a Latin f) |
| ᵪ | U+1D6A | Greek Subscript Small Letter Chi (used as a Latin x) |
The “used as a Latin X” annotation is the honest version: these are Greek letters Unicode put in the subscript range because the shapes happen to match, and they have been pressed into service as the missing Latin subscripts. A chemist or a typographer would notice the substitution; a casual reader would not.
What is missing
There is no Latin subscript for: b, d, f, g, q, y, z. For casual use, tools substitute a look-alike — most commonly ᵦ (Greek beta) for b, normal lowercase q for q, normal y for y, normal z for z. If you need true subscripts for the missing letters, the workaround is combining diacritics (a base character followed by U+0325 “Combining Ring Below”) or a CSS vertical-align: sub style, but the combining diacritic approach is fragile across font fallbacks, and the CSS approach only works in HTML, not in copy-paste Unicode text.
Where subscripts come from, in plain English
- 1991 — Unicode 1.0 ships the Subscripts block (U+2080–U+208E), with digits 0-9 and a few letters.
- 1996 — Unicode 3.0 adds subscript i, r, u, v in the Phonetic Extensions block, because the Subscripts block was running out of room.
- 2001 — Unicode 3.1 adds the small-cap letters and a few more subscripts.
- 2010 — Unicode 6.0 adds subscript j in the Latin Extended-C block (U+2C7C).
- Later versions — the Greek subscript letters (β γ ρ φ χ) get added to the Phonetic Extensions block, with the note that they’re often used as substitutes for missing Latin subscripts.
That is the entire history. There is no plan to add a complete Latin subscript alphabet in a future Unicode version. The gaps are stable.
What subscripts are good for
- Chemical formulas — H₂O, CO₂, C₆H₁₂O₆. The original use case. The current Unicode coverage handles these well.
- Mathematical notation — x₁, x₂, xₙ, aᵢ, bⱼ. Again, the use case the alphabet was designed for.
- Footnoted text in plain text — for the rare case where you want a “see note 3” marker to feel typed, ₃ works where a superscript ³ would feel like an exponent.
- Stylistic decoration — for the rare case where you want a label to read as “low and small” in a bio or a comment. Subscripts read as more niche than superscripts, which read as more niche than small caps. The aesthetic is “scientific”, not “cute”.
Subscripts are not good for: long blocks of text, words with q/y/z, anything you want to be searchable (a subscripts “alex” and a normal “alex” are different strings), or anything that needs to be read aloud (screen readers will not say “alex” when they see ₐₗₑₓ).
How to type subscript text
The fastest way is the Subscript Generator. Type your text, copy the subscript output, paste anywhere Unicode is accepted. For chemical formulas, the Tiny Text Generator gives you subscript alongside small caps and superscript in one view, so you can mix the three alphabets to build a formula.
The slow way is: open the Emoji & Symbols viewer on macOS, or the special-character picker on Windows, and dig out each character manually. Doable for a one-off formula; not viable for anything longer.
Quick recap
Subscript letters come from two Unicode blocks plus a few strays. The 11 letters most commonly used in English (a, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, x) are all present. The 8 commonly missing (b, d, f, g, j, q, y, z) have workarounds via Greek substitutes or combining marks, but no proper Latin subscript exists for them. For chemical formulas and mathematical notation, the current coverage is enough. For stylistic use, the gaps are the only real surprise. Use the Subscript Generator to see the live alphabet.