A With Ring (å) (å)
The a with ring (å) å is Unicode U+00E5, the Scandinavian vowel letter a with ring above, called bolle-å. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard, or type it with Alt + 0229 on Windows or Option + A on a Mac.
- Unicode
U+00E5- HTML
å- Windows
Alt + 0229- Mac
Option + A
How to type the a with ring (å) (å)
The quickest way is to press Copy above and paste. To type å yourself, use the method for your device below. On Windows the alt code is Alt + 0229. On a Mac it is Option + A.
Windows
- Hold Alt and type 0229 on the numeric keypad, then release Alt. Num Lock must be on. This uses the Windows-1252 code page, so it works in almost every Windows app.
- Hold Alt and type 134 on the numeric keypad. This older code (from code page 437) works in Notepad, Word and most desktop apps.
- In Word or Outlook, type 00E5 and press Alt + X. Alt + X converts the hex code before the cursor into the character, and back again.
- Press Win + R, type charmap and press Enter. Tick “Advanced view”, search for Latin Small Letter A with Ring Above, then Select and Copy. Character Map is built into every version of Windows.
Mac
- Press Option+A. On the standard US and US-International layouts.
- Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for a ring and double-click it.
Linux & ChromeOS
- Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type e5, then press Enter or Space. Works in GTK and IBus apps (GNOME, Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice) and on ChromeOS.
- Press your Compose key, then o a. Needs a Compose key set in your keyboard settings.
iPhone & iPad
- Touch and hold the a key on your iPhone or iPad keyboard, then slide your finger to å.
- Copy å from this page, then go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement and add it with a shortcut such as ;a. The shortcut then turns into the symbol as you type, in every app.
Android
- In Gboard, touch and hold the a key, then drag your finger to å in the pop-up accent list.
- Copy å here, then open Gboard settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary and add it with a shortcut.
Microsoft Word
- Type 00E5, then press Alt + X.
- Insert → Symbol → More Symbols. Set “from” to Unicode (hex), type 00E5 in “Character code” and click Insert.
- On a Mac, Option+A works in Word too.
Google Docs
- Insert → Special characters, then search for “a ring” or draw it in the box.
Excel & Google Sheets
- Enter
=UNICHAR(229)in a cell. It works in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.
HTML
- Write
åoråin your HTML.
What does å mean?
The letter a with ring above å (capital Å, Unicode name LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE), affectionately called bolle-å in Danish and Norwegian, is a prominent vowel letter in the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Walloon alphabets. It represents a back rounded vowel sound /oː/ or /ɔ/ (similar to the vowel sound in English caught, door, or thought).
Historically, the ring represents a miniature letter o written above an a to denote an Old Norse long vowel sound /aː/ that had shifted into an /o/ sound. Sweden officially adopted å in 1526 with the publication of Gustav Vasa’s Bible. Norway adopted it in 1917, and Denmark made the switch in 1948, replacing the archaic spelling aa. The capital form Å also famously represents the angstrom in physics (10⁻¹⁰ meters, named after Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström). Type å on Windows with Alt + 0229 (or Alt + 134), or on Mac with Option + A.
Common uses
- Scandinavian geography: Aarhus / Århus, Ålesund, Færøerne / Åland
- Everyday Nordic words: skål (cheers!), gå (walk/go), båt (boat), smörgås (sandwich)
- Physics and crystallography notation (Å for the angstrom unit)
- Family names and genealogical records across Scandinavia
A With Ring (å) codes for HTML, CSS and programming
Every code below produces å. Use the HTML entity in web pages, the CSS escape in content, and the escape sequence in source code.
| Unicode code point | U+00E5 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML entity (named) | å | |
| HTML decimal | å | |
| HTML hex | å | |
| CSS content | content: "\E5"; | |
| JavaScript | "\u00E5" | |
| Python | "\u00E5" | |
| Python (by name) | "\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE}" | |
| Java / C# | "\u00E5" | |
| LaTeX | \aa | |
| UTF-8 bytes | C3 A5 | |
| UTF-16 | 00E5 | |
| URL encoded | %C3%A5 | |
| Windows Alt code | Alt + 0229 | |
| Alt code (CP437) | Alt + 134 | |
| Mac shortcut | Option + A |
å vs look-alike characters
These characters look similar to å but have a different meaning and code. Pasting the wrong one can break search, sorting and screen readers.
| Char | Name | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
AU+0061 | Standard Latin letter a without a ring. | |
A with DiaeresisU+00E4 | A with umlaut (U+00E4), a front vowel in Swedish and Finnish. | |
AeU+00E6 | AE ligature (U+00E6), an ash vowel in Danish and Norwegian. | |
Masculine Ordinal IndicatorU+00BA | Masculine ordinal indicator (U+00BA), a superscript symbol used in Romance numbers. |
Symbols similar to å
Click to copy, or open a symbol for its codes.
å character properties
- Official Unicode name
- LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE
- Also known as
- bolle å, a ring, swedish a, a with circle above
- Code point
- U+00E5
- Unicode block
- Latin-1 Supplement (U+0080–U+00FF)
- General category
- Lowercase letter (Ll)
- Added in
- Unicode 1.1 (1993)
- Plane
- Basic Multilingual Plane (0)
- Emoji
- No, it is a text symbol
Frequently asked questions
What sound does å make?
It sounds like the back rounded "aw" or "oh" vowel in English words like "caught", "raw", or "door".
How do I type å on a Mac?
Hold down the Option key and tap A on a standard US keyboard to produce å.
What is the alt code for the a with ring (å)?
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0229 on the numeric keypad to get å. The shorter code Alt + 134 also works in most desktop apps. On a laptop without a keypad, copy it from this page or use 00E5 then Alt + X in Word.
How do I type the a with ring (å) on a Mac?
Press Option + A. It works in every app on the US keyboard layout. You can also open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space and search for it.
What is the HTML code for the a with ring (å)?
Use the named entity å or the numeric reference å (hex å). All three display å in every browser.
What is the Unicode for the a with ring (å)?
å is U+00E5, officially named LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE, in the Latin-1 Supplement block. It has been part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993).