Soft Hyphen ­

­ (U+AD) is a standard Unicode character that you can copy and paste anywhere text is accepted. This page provides a concise reference with safe tips, internal links, and practical guidance so you can use it reliably across apps and platforms.

What it is and where it’s used: Soft Hyphen is part of the Symbols family (block: Latin-1 Supplement). If you need styled or decorative alternatives, try our Fancy Text tool to generate compatible text that works in most modern interfaces.

History & usage: The SOFT HYPHEN is a punctuation mark with code point U+AD in the Latin-1 Supplement block. Its history lies in its role to help break long words at a line wrap. It is a hint to the renderer where a break may occur, but it does not appear in steady text unless a line end is required. In practice, its visibility depends on the font and the software used. The mark belongs to a common script and is treated as a punctuation cue that can influence how a line ends. Usage principles vary, and conventions differ by style and locale. Some languages and editors prefer to show or hide this hint, and others ignore it entirely. Editors must decide how to handle it in drafts and final copies. Because behavior changes across systems, writers should test documents in their target environments. The practice centers on structuring text clearly while conveying tone through line breaks and word choice. Overall, the soft hyphen supports flexible layout without adding visible glyphs in steady text.

Copy and input: the quickest method is to copy the character here. You can also insert it by its codepoint U+AD in many development tools or editors. Some operating systems provide a character viewer or input palette that lets you search by name or code and insert the glyph into documents.

Display and fallback: if you see an empty box (tofu) or a placeholder rectangle, the active font might not include this codepoint. Switching to a font with broader Unicode coverage or using a fallback font usually fixes the issue. On the web, ensure the page’s font stack includes a general‑purpose fallback.

Related references: browse the Categories for similar characters. When choosing a symbol, prefer the official codepoint for semantic clarity and better compatibility with search, copy, and accessibility tooling.

See our category page for related symbols.