Dot number
Dots 2-5-6 in braille
Dots 2-5-6 is the prefix dis- at the start of a word — and one other thing besides, because one cell in braille almost never means one thing. The raised positions are 2, 5 and 6, out of the six a cell has.
Dots 2-5-6
Unicode ⠲ — U+2832, 1 dot on the left and 2 dots on the right
The 2 things this cell can be
One cell, 2 jobs. Which one applies is decided by where the cell sits — beside a letter, between two, or alone between spaces — and never by the cell itself.
| Reading | Kind | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| the prefix dis- at the start of a word | Lower sign | By position inside a word |
| the full stop / period | Punctuation | By position |
Where you will meet it
Taken from the five thousand commonest English words in frequency order, so these are ordinary words rather than curiosities. Each is drawn in Grade 2, where the cell actually appears.
| Word | In braille | How common |
|---|---|---|
| discussion | 677th commonest | |
| display | 724th commonest | |
| district | 763rd commonest | |
| discount | 949th commonest |
The same cell in the other codes
Braille is not one code. This site publishes five, and they do not put this cell to the same use. Text written with one table and read with another does not come out as an accent or two — it comes out as different words.
| Code | What this cell is |
|---|---|
| Unified English Braille | the prefix dis- at the start of a word, and the full stop / period |
| Spanish braille | no reading of its own — see its alphabet |
| Portuguese braille | no reading of its own — see its alphabet |
| Arabic braille | the marks ۔ and . |
| Hindi braille | no reading of its own — see its alphabet |
One dot away
Under the fingers a missed or imagined dot turns this cell into 6 others. These are the ones to check against when a word will not resolve.
| Cell | Dots | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 2-5 | the letters cc between two letters; the prefix con- at the start of a word; the colon | |
| 2-6 | the letters en inside a word; the word “enough” standing alone | |
| 5-6 | the letter sign; the grade 1 symbol; the opening cell of 7 final-letter contractions | |
| 1-2-5-6 | the letters ou inside a word, and the word “out” alone | |
| 2-3-5-6 | the letters gg between two letters; the word “were” standing alone | |
| 2-4-5-6 | the letter w; the word “will” standing alone |
Look up something else
The dot-number lookup takes any combination of the six, the decoder reads a whole passage back, and the chart runs the other way, from the letter to the dots.
Dots 2-5-6 as an image
The cell on its own: dots 2, 5 and 6 filled, the other three positions shown empty — which is the part a description in words tends to leave out.
