Superscript

A^bC^d

This article is about the term 'superscript' as used in typography. "SuperScript" can also refer to a commercially available Reverse transcriptase.

A superscript is a number, figure, or symbol that appears above baseline, at the right or left of another symbol or text, with a baseline usually raised by around 50% to 65% of full letter height (ascent). The superscript text normally appears in reduced font size, usually between 58% and 67% (two thirds) of normal size.

Superscripts are often used, with various meanings, in formulas, mathematical expressions, or descriptions of chemical compounds and isotopes. Superscripts can also be used to indicate the presence of a footnote in a document. Sometimes, ordinal endings for numbers are written as superscripts (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd rather than 1st, 2nd, 3rd).

In HTML, superscript text is produced by putting it inside the tags <sup> and </sup>.
In TeX's math mode, superscripts are typeset with the caret ^: $X^{ab}$ produces $X^{ab}$ .

Unicode defines some superscript symbols:

in Latin-1 Supplement block, the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators U+00AA ª, U+00BA º and superscript numerals U+00B9 ¹, U+00B2 ², U+00B3 ³
in the Spacing Modifier Letters block, U+02B0 to U+02B8, ʰ ʱ ʲ ʳ ʴ ʵ ʶ ʷ ʸ, U+02E2 ˢ, U+02E3 ˣ
in the Phonetic Extensions block, U+1D43 to U+1D61, ᵃ ᵄ ᵅ ᵆ ᵇ ᵈ ᵉ ᵊ ᵋ ᵌ ᵍ ᵎ ᵏ ᵐ ᵑ ᵒ ᵓ ᵔ ᵕ ᵖ ᵗ ᵘ ᵙ ᵚ ᵛ ᵜ ᵝ ᵞ ᵟ ᵠ ᵡ
in the Superscripts and Subscripts block, U+2070 ⁰, U+2071 ⁱ , U+2074 to U+207F ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾ ⁿ

See also