The O with a stroke through it, Ø, is one of the most distinctive characters in the Latin alphabet. It looks like an accented O, but in Danish and Norwegian it is something more: a separate letter with its own identity, its own sound and its own place in the alphabet. This guide explains what it is and how to type it.
A Letter, Not An Accent
The crucial point about Ø is that it is not an O with a mark added on top. In Danish and Norwegian it is a distinct letter, positioned near the end of the alphabet after Z, alongside Æ and Å. Treating it as a variant of O, or replacing it with a plain O, is a spelling error rather than a stylistic shortcut.
In a Danish or Norwegian dictionary, words beginning with Ø are filed after those beginning with Z, not among the O words. That placement is the clearest sign that it is a letter in its own right.
How It Sounds
The stroke O represents a rounded front vowel, roughly the sound an English speaker makes in her without pronouncing the r, similar to the German and Swedish Ö. In fact Swedish and German use the two dot Ö for the same sound, which is why the two letters are close cousins across Scandinavian and German writing.
Where You Will Meet It
The letter appears in countless everyday Danish and Norwegian words and names: øl for beer, ø for island, and place names such as Tørshavn and Ålesund's neighbours. It is unavoidable in these languages, which is why getting the exact character right matters for anyone writing or quoting them.
The Æ And Å Companions
The stroke O rarely travels alone. Danish and Norwegian pair it with Æ, a ligature of A and E, and Å, an A with a ring. Together these three extra letters complete the alphabet. If you are typing one, you often need the others, so it is worth learning to reach all three.
How To Type Ø
On Windows, the Alt code is Alt 0216 for the capital and Alt 0248 for the lowercase, typed on the numeric keypad. On a Mac, hold Option and press O for the lowercase, or add Shift for the capital, because the stroke has its own dedicated combination rather than being a dead key accent. On a phone, press and hold the O key and slide to the stroke option. And on any UTF-8 page you can paste it directly, or copy it from the finder.
The oe Fallback
When the character is genuinely unavailable, Danish and Norwegian sometimes substitute oe, much as German substitutes oe for ö. It is a last resort for systems that cannot handle the real letter, not a preferred spelling.
In Summary
The O with a stroke is a full letter in Danish and Norwegian, sounded like a rounded front vowel and filed near the end of the alphabet, not a decorated O. Type it with Alt 0216, the Mac Option and O combination, a phone long press or a copy from the tool, and keep it alongside its companions Æ and Å.