Superscript & Subscript Letters ᵃ ₐ ᴬ ᵇ ᴮ Copy & Paste Tiny Text

Superscript and Subscript Letters meanings

We dedicated this page to little letters. It would be a mistake calling them just reduced copies of regular letters. And they are not a product of any fonts or styles. They are self-contained Unicode symbols with their own numbers in its table and meanings.

Letters written slightly above the normal line of type are called superscript. And letters set slightly below the line are named subscript. Both of them equally with small numbers stand for mathematical and chemical formulas. That’s why if you work a lot with formulas, we recommend you to add this page to your bookmarks or favs. So it will be fast to add subscript in excel or powerpoint. Let them know who is fast on the draw in this old office.

Small letters are also used in language studies. For example, linguists have a special set of symbols to describe the sounds of spoken languages named International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). If you have ever studied any foreign language, you could have faced with transcription: gracias /ˈɡɾa.θjas/.

Small letters, subscript and superscript symbols and other characters help to denote different specificities of the pronunciation, various additional sound and side tones, and subtle differences of sound transmission.

For instance, Slavic languages have “soft” consonants, and they are always indicated with ʲ after them: мать /mʌtʲ/.

How Type Small Letters

With our set you can easily write small letters. There are two ways to do superscript and subscript letters.

The first way is to use an Alt-code that every symbol has. Press the ALT key and type an appropriate code (you can find it in the table on the page of the needed symbol).

But there’s even much easier way to add subscript letters. It is possible to copy and paste a letter you need selecting it with your cursor. You can even write a short text using this method (with Latin letters only, unfortunately):

ᴴᵉᴸᴸᵒ ᵂᵒᴿᴸᵈ

Now you see how easy it is to write subscript in your google docs or to do superscript in powerpoint.

Everyday Uses

• Chemistry. The formula for glucose looks cleaner as C₆H₁₂O₆.
• Math. A function like f⁻¹(x) or a vector vi reads naturally when the indices are small.
• Unit notation. Write cm2 for square centimetres without resorting to images.
• Screen names. A tiny ᵃ or ₓ can add subtle flair to a profile or gamer tag.

Typing Shortcuts

1. Copy & paste — easiest method; the table above is ready for that.
2. Windows Alt-codes — ¹ (Alt + 0185), ² (Alt + 0178), ³ (Alt + 0179). Most letters lack direct codes, so copy-paste remains faster.
3. Mac / iOS — open the Emoji & Symbols palette (Ctrl + Cmd + Space) and search “superscript” or “subscript”.
4. HTML & CSS — wrap ordinary text in <sup> or <sub> when Unicode glyphs aren’t essential.

Style Hints

Superscript letters are designed for short bursts—a couple of indices or exponents. In paragraphs, an entire sentence of raised text feels cramped. When a font doesn’t include the exact glyph you need, fall back on <sup> / <sub> so your readers don’t see empty boxes.

Keep this panel handy whenever a project calls for compact notation — from a subscript i in statistics to a superscript v in physics. One click, and the perfect mini letter is on your clipboard.

How to copy & paste Superscript and Subscript Letters

Hover your mouse cursor over the emoticon or character you like, or tap on it from your phone and press “Copy”.