々

Simplified from 仝 (tóng), variant of 同 (tóng, “same (used as iteration mark)”), written in cursive.[1]

々

1. Ideographic iteration mark, indicating that the previous hanzi should be repeated.

In Japanese, the symbol 々 is used in any kind of writing. In Chinese, it is sometimes used in casual horizontal writing (or calligraphy) to indicate a repeated character, but not in formal writing, in print. More often, 〻 is used (but still only casually), or sometimes the older 二. Usually, however, the character is simply written twice, without the use of any of the above symbols.

• 〻 (in vertical writing, now rare)

Simplified from 仝, variant of 同 (“same (used as iteration mark)”), written in cursive.[2]

々

1. Ideographic iteration mark, indicating that the previous kanji should be repeated. The repeated character might not have the same pronunciation as the first due to rendaku.

   黙々 (mokumoku, “silent, mute, tacit”)

   早々 (hayabaya, “promptly”)

   佐々木 (sasaki, “Sasaki (a Japanese surname)”)

   昔々 (mukashimukashi, “once upon a time”)

   時々 (tokidoki, “occasionally, sometimes”)

   久々 (hisabisa, “long-absent”)

   色々 (iroiro, “various”)

   日々 (hibi, “daily”)

   島々 (shimajima, “islands”)

   所々 (tokorodokoro, “here and there”)

In Japanese, this mark is formally called 漢字返し (kanji-gaeshi, “kanji repeater”) or 同の字点 (dō no ji ten, “same-character mark”). More casually, it is called noma since it looks like a combination of the katakana ノマ (noma), 繰り返し (kurikaeshi, “repeating”), 同じ (onaji, “same”), or 同じく (onajiku, “same”).

• (for hiragana) ゝ
• (for katakana) ヽ

• Unihan entry