し, in hiragana, or シ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent the phonemes /si/, reflected in the Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization si, although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is [ɕi] ^ⓘ, which is reflected in the Hepburn romanization shi. The shapes of these kana have origins in the character 之. The katakana form has become increasingly popular as an emoticon in the Western world due to its resemblance to a smiling face.

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Quick Facts transliteration, translit. with dakuten ...

shi
hiragana katakana
transliteration	shi, si
translit. with dakuten	ji, zi
hiragana origin	之
katakana origin	之
Man'yōgana	子 之 芝 水 四 司 詞 斯 志 思 信 偲 寺 侍 時 歌 詩 師 紫 新 旨 指 次 此 死 事 准 磯 為
Voiced Man'yōgana	自 士 仕 司 時 尽 慈 耳 餌 児 弐 爾
spelling kana	新聞のシ (Shinbun no "shi")

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This character may be combined with a dakuten, forming じ in hiragana, ジ in katakana, and ji in Hepburn romanization; the pronunciation becomes /zi/ (phonetically [d͡ʑi] or [ʑi] in the middle of words).

The dakuten form of this character is used when transliterating "di" occasionally, as opposed to チ's dakuten form, or a de assigned to a small i; for example, Aladdin is written as アラジン Arajin, and radio is written as ラジオ.

In the Ainu language, シ is used to represent the ʃi sound. It can also be written as a small ㇱ to represent a final s sound, pronounced ɕ.

• Full Braille representation

More information し / シ in Japanese Braille, Sh/J + Yōon braille ...

し / シ in Japanese Braille				Sh/J + Yōon braille
し / シ shi	じ / ジ ji	しい / シー shī	じい / ジー jī	しゃ / シャ sha	じゃ / ジャ ja	しゃあ / シャー shā	じゃあ / ジャー jā
Sh/J + Yōon braille
しゅ / シュ shu	じゅ / ジュ ju	しゅう / シュー shū	じゅう / ジュー jū	しょ / ショ sho	じょ / ジョ jo	しょう / ショー shō	じょう / ジョー jō

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• Computer encodings

Look up し, じ, シ, or ジ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.