Latin character S with caron
About this character
The character š is known as Latin character S with caron and carries the Unicode code point U+0161, which is 353 in decimal. It belongs to the Latin Extended-A block (U+0100–U+017F), which gathers the accented letters of Central and Northern European languages missing from Latin-1, such as Polish, Czech and Hungarian.
In memory, š takes 2 bytes in UTF-8 (0xC5 0xA1) and 1 in UTF-16 (0x0161). That difference is why badly configured forms or databases garble this character: they assume one byte per character.
How to type š
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | In Word or WordPad, type 0161 and press Alt + X to turn the code into the character. |
| macOS | On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl + ⌘ + Space and search for “Latin character S with caron”. |
| Linux | On Linux (GTK), type Ctrl + ⇧ + U, 0161 then press Enter. |
| HTML / Web | In an HTML page, write š. Use \0161 in CSS, \u0161 in JavaScript and \u0161 in Python. |
| On this site | The simplest route is the Copy button above: the character goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere. |
Keyboards that include š
This character sits directly on the following ClavierVirtuel layouts, where you can click it with the mouse:
Codes and encodings
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+0161 |
| Unicode block | Latin Extended-A (U+0100–U+017F) |
| Decimal | 353 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x0161 |
| Octal | 0541 |
| Binary | 101100001 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xC5 0xA1 |
| UTF-16 units | 0x0161 |
| Named HTML entity | š |
| Decimal HTML entity | š |
| Hex HTML entity | š |
| CSS escape | \0161 |
| JavaScript escape | \u0161 |
| Python escape | \u0161 |
| URL encoding | %C5%A1 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unicode code for š?
Its code point is U+0161, which is 353 in decimal and 0541 in octal. In HTML you can write it as š or š.
Why does š show up as a box or a question mark?
An empty box means the font has no glyph for U+0161. The character is still in the text: switching to a font that covers the block (Noto, DejaVu or Segoe UI Symbol) makes it appear.
Can I use š in a filename, a URL or a password?
In a URL it must be encoded as %C5%A1. Modern filesystems accept it, though it is still risky when moving files between systems. For passwords, some forms reject non-ASCII characters outright.