Dotted circle explained

Char:	◌
dotted circle

In Unicode, the dotted circle is a non-significant typographic character used to illustrate the effect of a combining mark, such as a diacritic mark.^[1] It can also be used to indicate a spot where a character ought to be, but it is seldom used for anything else.

Illustration

A Unicode combining mark combines with a preceding character. When used as stand-alone, it would combine unintentionally with a preceding character (possibly a space):

• Diacritic used alone between regular spaces
• Diacritic used after a character

Using the generic dotted circle character also shows the relative positioning of the diacritic.

See also

• Unicode input

Notes and References

1. Web site: Chapter 17. About the Code Charts. Unicode, Inc.. 2012-09-26. 2015-03-28. Combining characters are shown with a dotted circle. […] the relative position of the dotted circle indicates an […] approximate location of the base character in relation to the combining mark. […]. The Unicode Standard. Version 6.2. 273.