Initial-letter contraction
“word” in braille
Two cells for the whole word, however long it is — 4 letters here, a saving of 2 cells. “word” is the 784th most common word in English.
Dots 4-5, then dots 2-4-5-6
Unicode ⠘⠺ — 4 letters in two cells
How to recognise it
The dots 4-5 member of the w family, and the one you are most likely to hesitate over, because “word” and “work” differ by a single letter in print and by a single cell in braille. The prefix is the only thing between them. Password, keyword and keywords all keep it, which is four of the 5,000 commonest words against twelve for “work”.
The second cell is the letter w
The second cell is the word's own first letter — the simpler half of this list. The other nine use a groupsign instead.
Learn it with its two sisters
“word” and “work” and “world” are written with the same second cell. Only the prefix separates them, which means the hard work of telling them apart is done by one cell — and learning them as a set is far quicker than meeting them one at a time.
Where it may appear inside a longer word
Only at the start and in the middle and at the end and of a word. UEB allows these inside a longer word only where the letters keep their meaning, which spelling cannot decide, so this site settled it by counting: every English word containing “word”, checked against the reference, split by where the letters sat.
Longer words that keep it
4 words among the 5,000 commonest in English are written with this contraction inside them. These are some of them, and every one was taken from this site's own output rather than chosen by hand.
| Word | In braille (Grade 2) | Grade 1 | Grade 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| password | 8 cells | 6 cells | |
| words | 5 cells | 3 cells | |
| keyword | 7 cells | 5 cells | |
| keywords | 8 cells | 6 cells |
The other 4 words under dots 4-5
A small group, so the prefix is already a strong clue.
Check your own text
Type “word” into the translator with Grade 2 selected to see both cells, or take the full list.
“word” in braille as an image
Both cells as a picture: dots 4 and 5, then dots 2, 4, 5 and 6 — the whole word in two cells rather than 4 letters.
