M with Accent: ḿ for Tone, ṃ or ṁ for the Sanskrit Nasal
An m with accent usually marks a tone, a nasal sign or an old Irish spelling, depending on the text. Yoruba and pinyin put an acute on a syllabic m: ḿ. Sanskrit's nasal dot is ṃ in IAST and ṁ under ISO 15919, and Gaelic type prints ṁ for mh. Tap a tile to copy one.
How do you type ḿ on a keyboard or phone?
On a Mac, ḿ is Fn/Globe+E, then search "latin small letter m with acute", then ḿ; on Windows it is Win+., then Symbols, then ḿ. Each row below gives the documented method for one device or app; the vendor help pages they come from are linked under the table.
| Device or app | Keys |
|---|---|
| Mac | Fn/Globe+E, then search "latin small letter m with acute", then ḿ How to type accents on a Mac |
| Windows | Win+., then Symbols, then ḿ How to type accents on Windows |
| Microsoft Word | 1e3f, then Alt+X How to type accents in Word |
| Google Docs | Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter m with acute" How to type accents in Google Docs |
Sources:Mac (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Windows (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)Microsoft Word (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)Google Docs (Google) (opens in a new tab)
- ḿ m with acute · used in 2 languages
- Ḿ capital m with acute · used in 2 languages
- ṃ m with dot below
- Ṃ capital m with dot below
- ṁ m with dot above
- Ṁ capital m with dot above
What is the Unicode code for ḿ?
ḿ is U+1E3F, LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH ACUTE, added in Unicode 1.1 in 1993. In UTF-8 it is stored as the bytes E1 B8 BF, and the table gives every escape a developer needs.
| Code point | U+1E3F |
|---|---|
| Name | LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH ACUTE |
| Added in | Unicode 1.1 (1993) |
| UTF-8 bytes | E1 B8 BF |
| HTML | ḿ ḿ |
| CSS | \1E3F |
| JavaScript | \u1E3F |
| Python | \u1e3f |
| URL | %E1%B8%BF |
If a page shows ḿ instead of ḿ, its UTF-8 bytes are being read as Windows-1252. Serve the page as UTF-8 (<meta charset="utf-8">) to fix it.
What does the mark on ḿ, ṃ or ṁ tell a reader?
The mark on an m with accent depends on who wrote it. The acute, the dot below and the dot above each do several jobs, and the writing system decides which. The table sums up Wiktionary's entries for ḿ (opens in a new tab), ṃ (opens in a new tab) and ṁ (opens in a new tab), with the mark names from Unicode's names list (opens in a new tab).
| Letter | Mark | Who writes it | What the mark says |
|---|---|---|---|
| ḿ Ḿ | acute | Yoruba | a syllabic m with a high tone |
| ḿ | acute | Mandarin pinyin | a syllabic m with the second tone |
| ḿ | acute | Lower Sorbian, now obsolete | a soft m, /mʲ/, now spelled mj |
| ḿ | acute | Yup'ik | a voiceless m, m̥ (opens in a new tab) in IPA |
| ṃ Ṃ | dot below | IAST romanization of Sanskrit | the anusvara, a nasal sign |
| ṃ | dot below | ISO romanization of Punjabi | the Gurmukhi tippi ੰ |
| ṃ Ṃ | dot below | Heiltsuk | a syllabic m, /m̩̀/ |
| ṃ | dot below | Inari Sami dictionaries | a half-long m |
| ṁ Ṁ | dot above | ISO 15919 romanization | the anusvara, the same sign as IAST ṃ |
| ṁ Ṁ | dot above | Irish in Gaelic type | mh, a lenited m |
Read the rows as a warning against guessing. The acute means a tone in Yoruba, softness in old Lower Sorbian and a voiceless sound in Yup'ik. The dot below means a nasal sign in a Sanskrit edition and a whole syllable in Heiltsuk. Unicode's own note on ṃ says only "Indic transliteration", and its note on ṁ says "Irish Gaelic (old orthography)". The language around the letter is the only reliable guide.
The CLDR alphabets behind the languages card list ḿ for Yoruba and Anii and hold neither dotted m. For Irish, Wiktionary's mutation table for máthair (opens in a new tab), mother, gives the lenited form mháthair, which Gaelic type sets with a dotted ṁ. Irish puts the same dot on other letters, as the G and T pages show.
Which tones on a syllabic m have a character of their own?
Only the acute one. Pinyin and Yoruba both let m stand alone as a syllable and both put tone marks on it, yet Unicode encodes a single m with a tone mark for the acute alone. Unicode's names list ties each combining mark to a pinyin tone, and Wiktionary supplies the m syllables: 呣 (opens in a new tab), 姆 (opens in a new tab), m̄ (opens in a new tab) and m̀ (opens in a new tab).
| Mark | Pinyin tone | Pinyin m | Yoruba m | After normalization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| macron | first | m̄, in 姆媽 | m̄, mid tone | m + U+0304, two code points |
| acute | second | ḿ, in 呣 (huh?) | ḿ, high tone | U+1E3F, one code point |
| caron | third | m̌, in 姆們 | not listed | m + U+030C, two code points |
| grave | fourth | m̀, in 呣 (okay!) | m̀, low tone | m + U+0300, two code points |
The last column is our own measurement, not a quoted rule. On 2026-10-10 we normalized each pair to NFC, the composed form UAX #15 (opens in a new tab) defines, in Node.js v26.0.0 with Unicode 17.0 data. An m with an acute came back as U+1E3F. The macron, caron and grave stayed apart from the m. The control, an e with a combining acute, became é as expected.
That gap has practical effects for anyone who types a tone-marked m with accent. You cannot copy m̀ from a tile, because there is no single m̀ to copy; you type m and then the mark. And code that checks for letters only can reject the word. In the same Node.js test, a regular expression for letters, \p{L}+, accepted ḿ but not m̀; it needed \p{M}, the class for marks, as well.
Should the Sanskrit nasal dot go under the m or over it?
The Sanskrit nasal dot can go either way, as long as one text keeps to one scheme. Wiktionary defines ṃ and ṁ the same way, as the romanization of the anusvara ◌ं, and names the scheme behind each: IAST for the dot below, ISO for the dot above. Its anusvara (opens in a new tab) entry calls the sign a diacritic used in Indic scripts as a nasal consonant. Unicode names it DEVANAGARI SIGN ANUSVARA, with "bindu" as its other name.
| Sign | Unicode name | Romanized as |
|---|---|---|
| ं | DEVANAGARI SIGN ANUSVARA | ṃ in IAST, ṁ in ISO |
| ँ | DEVANAGARI SIGN CANDRABINDU | m̐, an m with a combining candrabindu |
| ੰ | GURMUKHI TIPPI | ṃ in ISO |
The rows come from Wiktionary's entries for ṃ (opens in a new tab), m̐ (opens in a new tab) and the Gurmukhi tippi (opens in a new tab). Watch the last row. Under ISO, ṃ is not the anusvara but the tippi, a Punjabi sign of nasalization, so a ṃ copied from an IAST edition into an ISO text says something else.
The candrabindu row has no letter of its own. In our Node.js test, m plus U+0310, COMBINING CANDRABINDU, stayed two code points. Om is the best-known case: Wiktionary's translingual entry for ॐ writes it oṃ, with the anusvara dot, and its Bengali entry om̐, with this mark.
Mixing the two dots breaks plain search. On 2026-10-10, JavaScript's includes did not find saṁsāra in saṃsāra. Collation is more forgiving. Under ICU 78.3 in Node.js v26.0.0, with English, Hindi or Yoruba rules at the strength that ignores marks, saṃsāra, saṁsāra and samsara compared equal. At the strength that keeps marks, ṃ and ṁ stayed apart.
Why is saṃsāra written sansār in Hindi?
Because Wiktionary's Hindi romanization writes out the nasal, while its Sanskrit one keeps the sign. The Devanagari spelling below is the same in both languages. Wiktionary gives each word a Sanskrit headword and a Hindi headword, and only the Sanskrit one keeps the dotted m.
| Devanagari | Meaning | Sanskrit, in Wiktionary | Hindi, in Wiktionary |
|---|---|---|---|
| संसार | world; transmigration | saṃsāra | sansār |
| सिंह | lion | siṃhá | siṅh |
| संघ | association | saṃgha | saṅgh |
| मांस | meat | māṃsá | māns |
| संस्कृत | refined; Sanskrit | saṃskṛtá | sanskŕt |
The words come from Wiktionary's entries for संसार (opens in a new tab), सिंह (opens in a new tab), संघ (opens in a new tab), मांस (opens in a new tab) and संस्कृत (opens in a new tab). The acute on a vowel in the Sanskrit column belongs to the headword, not to the m.
The Hindi column shows that the dot is not an m sound. In these words it comes out as n before s, and as ṅ before gh and h. Wiktionary even calls Sanskrit संघ an alternative spelling of सङ्घ, saṅgha, which writes the nasal out in full. Wiktionary also gives sĩh for सिंह, a nasal vowel with no consonant at all.
So a ṃ in a name or a book title tells you the text follows Sanskrit romanization. Like every m with accent on this page, it names a system before it names a sound, and it does not tell you to say m.
Which languages use ḿ, ṃ or ṁ?
Between them, ḿ, ṃ and ṁ are part of the standard alphabet of 2 languages in the Unicode CLDR. Each letter's languages:
- ḿ
- 2 languages: Anii, Yoruba
No CLDR alphabet lists ṃ and ṁ.
How to type m with accent, step by step
Step 1: Microsoft Word: 1e3f, 1e43 or 1e41, then Alt+X
Type 1e3f where the letter should go and press Alt+X to get ḿ. 1e43 gives ṃ and 1e41 gives ṁ. For a tone with no letter of its own, type m, then 0300 for the grave or 0304 for the macron, and press Alt+X: Word turns the code into the combining mark after the m.
Step 2: Mac: the Character Viewer, searched for the m
Press Fn/Globe+E and search latin small letter m with acute, m with dot below or m with dot above. Click the result to put it at the cursor.
Step 3: Windows: the Symbols tab behind Win+.
Press Win+. to open the emoji panel, go to Symbols and find the m among the Latin letters. A click inserts it.
Step 4: Google Docs: Insert, Symbols, Special characters, search the name
Choose Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, and type latin small letter m with dot below or another of the names into the search box. Click the m that comes up.
Step 5: Phone or any browser: copy a tile
Tap ḿ, ṃ or ṁ at the top of this page and paste it. Turn on Uppercase first if you need Ḿ, Ṃ or Ṁ.
What are all the m letters with accents?
Every m with an accent mark on AccentPad, lowercase then capitals. Tap one to copy it:
Which letters are related to m with accent?
These letter pages share an accent mark or a language with ḿ Ḿ ṃ Ṃ ṁ Ṁ, the most shared languages first.
Every letter with the same mark, on one page, for ḿ: Accent aigu.
ḿ Ḿ ṃ Ṃ ṁ Ṁ have no Alt code: Windows cannot type them that way.
Need a letter other than ḿ?
Frequently asked questions about m with accent
What does ḿ stand for in pinyin?
The second tone on a syllable made of m alone. Wiktionary gives ḿ as the pinyin of 呣, an interjection asking huh?, and of 嘸, a dialect word for not having. It lists a plain m as a nonstandard spelling of the same syllables, which is what you get when the tone is left off.
Are ṃ and ṁ the same sound?
In a romanized Sanskrit text, yes. Wiktionary defines both as the transliteration of the anusvara ◌ं and lists each as the other's synonym: ṃ in IAST, ṁ in ISO 15919. To a computer they are different letters, U+1E43 and U+1E41, and normalization never turns one into the other.
How is Om written with an accent on the m?
Wiktionary's Sanskrit entry for ॐ gives óṃ, with the anusvara as ṃ, and óm̐, with a candrabindu over the m; its Hindi entry gives plain om. The m̐ is not a single character. Unicode has no m with candrabindu, so it is an m followed by U+0310, COMBINING CANDRABINDU.
Does the dotted ṁ in an Irish text sound like m?
No. Wiktionary says ṁ in Gaelic type equals mh in roman type, and gives mh the Irish sounds /w/ and /vʲ/. So the dot marks the softened m that Irish grammar calls lenition, as in mháthair, the lenited form of máthair, mother.
Which m with accent has a named HTML entity?
None of them. The HTML entity list has no name for ḿ, ṃ, ṁ or their capitals, so write a numeric reference: ḿ gives ḿ, ṃ gives ṃ and ṁ gives ṁ. For the capitals use Ḿ, Ṃ and Ṁ.