About Eight-pointed Star
Eight-pointed Star is the Unicode character ✴️ at codepoint U+2734 in the Dingbats block of the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).
Reference
A two-codepoint sequence: the Dingbats burst at U+2734 followed by U+FE0F, the emoji variation selector. Unicode's emoji data calls this the fully qualified form and gives it the short name "eight-pointed star"; the bare character is listed as unqualified. The base has been in the standard since Unicode 1.1 (1993) and carries the Emoji property without Emoji_Presentation, which is exactly why the selector is needed — without it the same codepoint is the monochrome eight-pointed black star that takes the surrounding text colour. Neither form has an HTML named entity. The base character's East Asian Width is Neutral and its line break class is AL.
Typical uses
- A sparkle or burst in a message, where the coloured form is the point
- Labels and headings in interfaces that render emoji rather than type
- Anywhere the emoji form has to survive being copied between applications
At a glance
- U+2734 U+FE0F; base character in Dingbats, Unicode 1.1 (1993); general category So
- Fully qualified per Unicode's emoji data; the bare U+2734 is unqualified
- CLDR short name: eight-pointed star
- Base carries Emoji but not Emoji_Presentation, which is why the selector is required
- No HTML named entity; base East Asian Width Neutral, line break class AL
Historical Notes
Origins
The star itself is a printer's ornament and predates the encoding; the account of the Dingbats block's origin in a typeface is the received one rather than something verified here. What is new is the second codepoint.
Unicode
The base character has been present since Unicode 1.1, released in 1993. The variation selector mechanism came later, with the unification of emoji, and it was applied to characters that already existed rather than replacing them. Both variation sequences are defined for this base: U+FE0E asks for text, U+FE0F asks for emoji.
Why a sequence rather than a new character
Unicode had two options for a character that already existed and now needed a coloured form, and it chose not to duplicate the codepoint. Two hundred and nineteen codepoints across the whole standard are emoji-capable and default to text; all 219 accept a variation selector, and a further 152 that default to emoji accept U+FE0E to force text — 371 in total. That design keeps one identity per character and pushes the presentation question into an invisible codepoint, which is efficient and is also the reason presentation is so easily lost in transit.
Developer Notes
| Unicode Codepoint | |
| Decimal | |
| UTF-8 (hex) | |
| UTF-16 (hex) | |
| HEX Entity | |
| CSS (\xxxx) | |
| JavaScript | |
| Python |
How to Use Eight-pointed Star
To use the Eight-pointed Star symbol (✴️) in HTML, insert the
entity ✴️ directly into your markup.
In CSS pseudo-elements use content: '\2734';.
In JavaScript and TypeScript the escape '\u2734' evaluates to ✴️. In Python source, write '\u2734'.
The character encodes to E2 9C B4 as UTF-8 bytes and 2734 as UTF-16 code units. Its decimal codepoint is 10036.
This is a fully-qualified emoji and should render with colour on iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. Appearance may vary between platforms, but the underlying codepoint is identical everywhere.
Things to know
- This is two codepoints, not one. String length, truncation and character counting all see two, and a naive substring can separate them.
- Strip U+FE0F and you have the eight-pointed black star, which renders as flat type in the surrounding colour. That is the most common way a coloured star "loses" its colour.
- No named HTML entity. Write ✴️ for the sequence.
- U+FE0F is invisible and zero-width, so it survives or vanishes without any visual cue until the glyph changes.
- Fonts differ on the emoji form; Unicode specifies the request, not the artwork.
- The base character's East Asian Width is Neutral even though most emoji-presentation characters are Wide, because the emoji behaviour here comes from the sequence rather than from the character's own property.
In the Wild
On 5 August 2026 not one occurrence of the base character carried U+FE0F: code-chart and presentation-table cells on Wikipedia's Dingbats block article, and single occurrences on two articles about dingbats and on the article about the typeface the block came from.
Every one is the bare, unqualified character. In encyclopaedia articles and project documentation this particular star is written as plain type, or not written at all. Pages change; this is what those showed on the day.
FAQ
What does the second codepoint do?
U+FE0F asks the renderer for the emoji form. Unicode calls the resulting sequence fully qualified.
Is it a different character from U+2734?
It is the same base character plus a selector. As data it is two codepoints rather than one, which is what most software will notice.
Why did the colour disappear?
The selector was dropped somewhere. What remains is eight-pointed black star, the text form.
Is there an HTML entity?
No named one. Write ✴️.