How to type One Fifth
To type One Fifth (⅕), press Alt + 8533 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or write ⅕ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2155 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2155 on Linux, or 2155 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Vulgar Fraction One Fifth
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2155
- Windows
- Alt + 8533 needs regedit
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 8533 | Above 255, so Windows will not accept it as typed. Copy the character instead. |
| Mac | N/A | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ⅕ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2155 | VULGAR FRACTION ONE FIFTH |
Other fractions symbols
⅕ lives in the Number Forms block (U+2150-U+218F), fractions and Roman numerals as single characters. Within Unicode it is classified as No, a number that is not a digit. Fractions and superscript digits sit here.
What happens to ⅕ in a search box
⅕ is a precomposed fraction: Unicode says it can be rewritten as 1⁄5, three separate characters. Anything that normalises text to NFKC before comparing it does exactly that, which is why ⅕ pasted into a search field, a URL slug or a username can come back as 1⁄5 and match text that never contained ⅕ at all. NFC, the form this site uses, leaves it alone. Unicode also records its numeric value as 0.2, so software that asks a character what number it is gets 0.2 rather than an error.
How One Fifth behaves in software
⅕ takes one column in a terminal. It carries no direction of its own, so in a line that mixes English with Arabic or Hebrew it takes the direction of the text around it rather than forcing one.
Every way to write One Fifth
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2155 |
| Decimal | 8533 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 85 95 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 21 55 |
| HTML entity | ⅕ |
| HTML numeric | ⅕ or ⅕ |
| CSS | \2155 |
| JavaScript | \u2155 |
| Python | \u2155 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%85%95 |
| SVG | 2155.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ⅕ arrives as â…•
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 85 95 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.