Make Hawaiian words look right and sound right. Find out here how to type the Hawaiian okina glottal stop ( ʻ ) on your Mac ⤓ using Character Viewer or a dedicated key.
First, Like a Hot Knife through Waiūpaka
Hawaiian does not suffer from a plethora of declensions, conjugations, pre- or suffixes.
One exception is the suffix “-na,” of course, which turns a verb into a noun — like it does with ʻoki (to separate). That becomes ʻokina, the glottal stop that goes through words like a hot knife through butter to distinguish and make them recognizable.
So, an important character and one you can get right on a Mac:
How to Type the Hawaiian Okina Character ( ʻ ) on a Mac
Time needed: 2 minutes
To insert the Hawaiian ʻokina glottal stop using a Mac:
- Position the text cursor where you want the okina to appear.
- Select Edit | Emoji & Symbols from the menu.
Using the keyboard: The standard Mac U.S. keyboard layout does not let you type the okina directly; you can enable the Hawaiian layout however, and get access — see below.
Other shortcuts: You can, of course, also set up a text replacement shortcut for the okina character; see below as well.
Charakter viewer shortcut: Press 🌐︎ or Fn E to open the emoji panel or Character Viewer. - Search for
modifier letter turned comma.Not “okina”: Do not bother searching for okina or anything similar. The official Unicode name for the character is modifier letter turned comma; it is used as a glottal stop in various languages under numerous names.
- Double-click the okina character to insert it.
Their word: The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo includes information about code points for Hawaiian characters on Unicode on the Web.
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Type the Okina Using the Hawaiian Mac Keyboard Layout
To insert the okina character using the Hawaiian keyboard layout on a Mac:
- Enable and switch to the Hawaiian keyboard layout.
- Press ʻ.
Where: The key is in place of the straight single quote character (') on the standard U.S.-English keyboard layout.
In MS Word: How to Type the Okina Symbol ( ʻ ) in Word
On Windows? How to Get Hawaiian Okina on the Windows Keyboard
Use Text Replacement for the Okina
You can also set up a set of characters to be replaced with the Hawaiian ʻokina automatically.
To set up text replacement for the okina character:
- Open System Settings (or System Preferences) on your Mac.
Here’s how: Select Apple logo | System Settings…, for instance, from the menu. - Go to the Keyboard section.
- Click Text Replacements…
macOS Monterey and earlier: Open the Text tab. - Click + beneath the current list of text expansions.
- Enter the characters you want to be replaced with the okina in the Replace column.
Example: Something like‘‘(two opening single quotes in succession) works reasonably well. - Now insert the Hawaiian okina character in the With column.
Easy: Copy the character below for pasting. - Press Enter.
Now, to insert your replacement characters — two apostrophes, for instance — ,followed by any character to insert the ʻokina with ease.
How to Type the Hawaiian Okina Character ( ʻ ) on a Mac: FAQ
Can I copy and paste the okina?
Yes, of course. Use the button below to copy the ʻokina character:
Hawaiian okina ʻ |
What’s the difference between an okina and an apostrophe or a single opening quote?
The okina points upward like a single opening quotation mark but is a distinct character.
Here’s are the characters for comparison:
| Character | Browser Display | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Okina | ʻ |  |
| Opening Single Quote | ‘ |  |
| Apostrophe | ’ |  |
If a font does not support the okina, it is best to use the single quote as a substitute.
Will the okina character display correctly on all devices?
For the most part yes.
You insert the okina as a Unicode character on the Mac, so it will display correctly on all devices and applications that use Unicode for display and where the font includes the character U+02BB.
(Tested with macOS Tahoe 26.0–26.4, Sequoia 15.0–15.3, Sonoma 14.1-14.3, Ventura 13.3 and Monterey 12.3; first published February 2022, last updated April 2026)