Inverted Question Mark ¿

¿ (U+BF) is a standard Unicode character that you can copy and paste anywhere text is accepted. This page provides a concise reference with safe tips, internal links, and practical guidance so you can use it reliably across apps and platforms.

What it is and where it’s used: Inverted Question Mark is part of the Symbols family (block: Latin-1 Supplement). If you need styled or decorative alternatives, try our Fancy Text tool to generate compatible text that works in most modern interfaces.

History & usage: The INVERTED QUESTION MARK is a punctuation symbol with the codepoint BF in the Latin-1 Supplement block. Its name in English is INVERTED QUESTION MARK, and it belongs to the Common script. In the English locale, this character is treated as a typographic mark used to flag questions or open items in text. Usage notes describe that question marks commonly introduce help, FAQ, or unknown status. This indicates its role in signaling inquiry, guidance needs, or uncertain information within a document or interface. As a character, it participates in text alongside standard punctuation and helps readers identify a query or a point of ambiguity at a glance. When seen, it often prompts the reader to seek further details or clarifications. The presence of this symbol reflects a design choice that extends the familiar question mark to convey special opening or diagnostic meaning. In history and modern usage, it remains a recognizable marker for questions and related help topics across contexts.

Copy and input: the quickest method is to copy the character here. You can also insert it by its codepoint U+BF in many development tools or editors. Some operating systems provide a character viewer or input palette that lets you search by name or code and insert the glyph into documents.

Display and fallback: if you see an empty box (tofu) or a placeholder rectangle, the active font might not include this codepoint. Switching to a font with broader Unicode coverage or using a fallback font usually fixes the issue. On the web, ensure the page’s font stack includes a general‑purpose fallback.

Related references: browse the Categories for similar characters. When choosing a symbol, prefer the official codepoint for semantic clarity and better compatibility with search, copy, and accessibility tooling.

See our category page for related symbols.