Superscript renders text above the normal baseline, typically used for ordinal indicators, mathematical exponents, trademark symbols, and citation markers. In flavours that support it natively, it is written with ^ on each side. Where native support is unavailable, the HTML <sup> element is the standard fallback.
E = mc^2^
The 1^st^ of January.
E = mc<sup>2</sup>
The 1<sup>st</sup> of January.
E = mc^2^
The 1^st^ of January.
E = mc2
The 1st of January.
Best Practice
- Use the native
^text^syntax only when you are confident your renderer supports it — it produces no superscript in GitHub Flavored Markdown or CommonMark. - Use
<sup>text</sup>as the portable fallback for environments where inline HTML is permitted. - Keep superscript text short — a single digit, letter, or abbreviation. Longer spans in superscript are difficult to read.
Notes
Conflict with Autolinks and Other Syntax
In some flavours, ^ is used for other purposes — Obsidian uses ^ for block references, and some parsers interpret ^ inside brackets differently. Always test superscript rendering in your specific target environment.
Ordinal Indicators
A common use of superscript is ordinal suffixes on dates and rankings: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. The HTML fallback is the safest approach for these in mixed-renderer contexts.
Trademark and Registration Symbols
The trademark symbol ™ and registered symbol ® can be written directly as Unicode characters (or HTML entities ™ and ®) without needing superscript syntax. Superscript is only needed when you want to position arbitrary text above the baseline.
Markdown Flavour Support
Not in CommonMark or GitHub Flavored Markdown; native syntax supported by Pandoc and MultiMarkdown. HTML fallback broadly available.
Flavour Support Detail
| Flavour | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Original Markdown | No | Not defined in the original spec. |
| CommonMark | No | Not part of the CommonMark spec; <sup> HTML fallback works. |
| GitHub Flavored Markdown | No | ^text^ not superscript in GFM; <sup> HTML fallback works in files. |
| Pandoc Markdown | Yes | ^text^ native superscript via the superscript extension. |
Practical Examples
- Writing dates with ordinal suffixes in a travel blog: Superscript ordinals look polished and typographically correct in a published post.
We arrived on the 3<sup>rd</sup> of April and left on the 10<sup>th</sup>.
The 1<sup>st</sup> day was the best — we had the whole beach to ourselves.
We arrived on the 3rd of April and left on the 10th. The 1st day was the best — we had the whole beach to ourselves.
- Expressing a mathematical power in a hobby science article: Display an exponent correctly above the baseline rather than using a caret or parentheses.
The speed of light squared — c<sup>2</sup> — appears in Einstein's famous equation E = mc<sup>2</sup>.
The speed of light squared — c2 — appears in Einstein's famous equation E = mc2.
- Adding a citation marker in a simple article without footnote support: Use a superscript number as a lightweight reference indicator when your renderer does not support footnotes.
The sourdough method was popularised in the UK partly through television programmes.<sup>1</sup>
<sup>1</sup> *The Great British Bake Off*, Series 3, 2012.
The sourdough method was popularised in the UK partly through television programmes.1
1 The Great British Bake Off, Series 3, 2012.