The letter H with an accent almost always means one of two characters: the lowercase ĥ (U+0125) or the uppercase Ĥ (U+0124), both carrying a circumflex. Neither has a genuine Windows Alt code, so the fastest routes are copy‑paste, the Word Alt+X method, or your operating system’s character picker. Click either button below to copy it instantly, then read on for exact keystrokes on every major platform.
Quick reference table for H with a circumflex
This single table carries every code you need for both variants. Because there is no Windows Alt code for either glyph, the Alt code column tells you so and the Word column gives the working alternative.
| Glyph | Unicode name | Code point | Windows Alt code | Word Alt+X | HTML entity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ĥ | U+0125 | U+0125 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0125 then Alt+X | Type 0125, then press Alt+X | ĥ |
| Ĥ | U+0124 | U+0124 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0124 then Alt+X | Type 0124, then press Alt+X | Ĥ |
The HTML entities above are decimal references. If you prefer hexadecimal, ĥ and Ĥ render the same two characters in any web page.
What the accent mark on H means
Both characters in this set use the same diacritic: the circumflex, a small pointed mark shaped like a caret (^) sitting directly above the letter. It is the only accent that appears on an accented H in Unicode’s basic Latin Extended‑A block, which is why ĥ and Ĥ are the two glyphs you will encounter.
The uppercase and lowercase forms are a matched pair. Ĥ is the capital and ĥ is the small letter, and Unicode places them next to each other at U+0124 and U+0125 so software can convert between cases cleanly. When you change case in a word processor, a correctly encoded ĥ should become Ĥ and back again without losing the circumflex.
Keep the circumflex distinct from other marks you might see on nearby letters, such as a grave, acute, or breve. Those are separate diacritics; the H variants here only ever take the pointed circumflex, so if you see a different mark you are looking at a different character.
How to type H with an accent on every platform
Each platform below appears once, with the exact keys or menu path and the best fallback. Because ĥ and Ĥ are uncommon on standard keyboards, copy‑paste from the buttons above is always a valid shortcut when a native method feels slow.
Windows
There is no Alt+number code for either glyph, so ignore any four‑digit Alt suggestion you find elsewhere. Open Character Map (search “charmap” in the Start menu), tick Advanced view, search for “h with circumflex,” then select and copy ĥ or Ĥ.
For repeated use, the built‑in touch keyboard also helps: right‑click the taskbar, enable the touch keyboard button, then press and hold on‑screen keys to reach accented forms. Copy‑paste remains the quickest fallback for one‑off insertions.
Mac
The standard circumflex dead key (Option+I) only composes over vowels, so it will not build an accented H. Instead open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space, search “circumflex,” and double‑click ĥ or Ĥ to insert it.
If you insert these characters often, add the Unicode Hex Input keyboard in System Settings → Keyboard. With it active, hold Option and type 0125 for ĥ or 0124 for Ĥ.
Microsoft Word
Word has the cleanest desktop method through Alt+X. Type the code point 0125 for the lowercase letter, then press Alt+X and Word converts it to ĥ; type 0124, then Alt+X for the capital Ĥ.
You can also use Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, set the subset to Latin Extended‑A, and pick the glyph directly. Pressing Alt+X immediately after an inserted character reverses the conversion, which is handy for checking a code point.
Excel
Excel does not support the Alt+X conversion, so use Insert → Symbol, choose the Latin Extended‑A subset, and select ĥ or Ĥ. For formulas, =UNICHAR(293) returns ĥ and =UNICHAR(292) returns Ĥ, which is useful when generating text automatically.
PowerPoint
PowerPoint follows the same path as Excel: Insert → Symbol, set the subset to Latin Extended‑A, then double‑click the glyph you need. There is no Alt+X in PowerPoint, so paste from the copy buttons above if the symbol dialog is slow to navigate on a slide.
Google Docs and Sheets
In Google Docs, open Insert → Special characters, type “h with circumflex” in the search box or draw the shape, and click ĥ or Ĥ to place it. Google Sheets has no special‑character menu, so use the formula =UNICHAR(293) or =UNICHAR(292), or simply paste the character into a cell.
iPhone and Android
The default phone keyboards do not offer an accented H on the long‑press menu, because the circumflex option is reserved for vowels. The most reliable approach is to copy ĥ or Ĥ from this page and paste it where you need it.
If you type these letters frequently, create a text replacement shortcut. On iPhone go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement; on Android open your keyboard’s personal dictionary and map a short trigger such as “hcx” to ĥ.
Chromebook, Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
On a Chromebook, enable the Unicode input method, then hold Ctrl+Shift and type 0125 or 0124, releasing the keys to produce ĥ or Ĥ. This is the one built‑in shortcut that works across the whole system.
Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva have no dedicated accent picker, so paste the character from the copy buttons above. In Slack and Discord you can also save it as a custom text shortcut or snippet, and in Canva you can paste directly into any text box on your design.
Precomposed characters versus combining marks
There are two ways to build an accented H that look identical on screen. A precomposed character is a single code point—U+0125 for ĥ—where the letter and its circumflex are one unit. A combining sequence is a plain h followed by U+0302 (the combining circumflex), which the display stacks together into what appears to be the same glyph.
The visual result is the same, but the underlying data is not. A precomposed ĥ is one character long; a combining version is two characters that only render as one.
This difference matters in practice. Search boxes, filename comparisons, form validation, and copy‑paste can treat the two encodings as unequal, so a word typed with a combining mark may fail to match the same word typed with a precomposed letter. When that happens, applying Unicode normalization (form NFC) converts a combining sequence into the single precomposed code point and restores reliable matching.
Troubleshooting common problems
If the character shows as a box, a question mark, or a blank space, the font you are using lacks the glyph. Switch to a broad Unicode font such as a system default, Arial, or Noto, and the circumflexed H should appear.
Getting the wrong variant usually means a case or code mix‑up. Double‑check that you typed 0125 for the lowercase ĥ and 0124 for the uppercase Ĥ, since transposing the last digit swaps the case.
If an Alt+number sequence produces nothing or the wrong symbol, that is expected—these glyphs have no Windows Alt code, and any decimal value you may have seen (such as 292 or 293) is a Unicode number, not an Alt code. Use the Word Alt+X method, Character Map, or copy‑paste instead.
Keyboard‑layout issues explain most failed dead‑key attempts: the circumflex dead key is built for vowels, so it will not accent an H on Windows or Mac. And if two identical‑looking words refuse to match in search or a filename, normalize the text to form NFC to collapse any hidden combining marks into the single precomposed character.
Worked examples
To type both cases in Word, enter 0124 and press Alt+X for Ĥ, then a space, then 0125 and Alt+X for ĥ. To generate them in a spreadsheet, put =UNICHAR(292)&UNICHAR(293) in a cell and you will see Ĥĥ side by side.
For the web, write Ĥ and ĥ in your HTML to output Ĥ and ĥ, or use the hex forms Ĥ and ĥ. On a phone, copy ĥ from the button at the top of this page and save it as a text replacement so a short trigger expands into the full character whenever you need it.
Related guides and resources
Need accents on other letters? Our complete guide to typing accented letters collects every method in one place, and you can browse more accented-letter guides whenever a new character comes up. To skip the keystrokes entirely, the on‑screen accent keyboard tool lets you click and copy any variant.
Because a circumflexed H is easy to confuse with nearby letters, these focused walkthroughs help too: how to type G with an accent mark, how to type J with an accent mark, typing F with accents on Windows, Mac and mobile, and typing I with accents across devices.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Windows Alt code for ĥ or Ĥ?
No. Neither character has a standard Windows Alt+number code. Use the Word Alt+X method (type 0125 or 0124 and press Alt+X), Character Map, or copy‑paste from the buttons above.
What is the Unicode value of H with a circumflex?
The lowercase ĥ is U+0125 and the uppercase Ĥ is U+0124. In decimal those are 293 and 292, which map to the HTML entities ĥ and Ĥ.
Why does the circumflex dead key not work on H?
On both Windows and Mac the circumflex dead key is designed to accent vowels, so it produces nothing usable over an H. Use Character Map, the Character Viewer, or the Unicode Hex Input keyboard instead.
Why do two identical‑looking words fail to match in search?
One version is probably a precomposed ĥ (a single code point) while the other is a plain h plus a combining circumflex (two code points). Normalizing the text to Unicode form NFC merges them so they compare as equal.
How do I type ĥ on my phone?
The default iPhone and Android keyboards do not offer it on a long‑press, so copy it from this page. For repeated use, create a text replacement shortcut that expands a short trigger into ĥ or Ĥ.
Why does ĥ appear as a box or question mark?
Your current font does not include the glyph. Switching to a wide‑coverage Unicode font such as Arial, a system default, or Noto will display the character correctly.
How do I insert Ĥ in Google Docs?
Open Insert → Special characters, search for “h with circumflex,” and click the uppercase result. In Google Sheets, use =UNICHAR(292) or paste the character directly into the cell.