What is the dot above the letters 'i' and 'j' called?

The dot above the lowercase letters “i” and “j” is called a tittle. It is also known as a superscript dot and is treated in English writing as a diacritic that belongs to those letterforms.

The tittle is not simply an optional decoration: it helps distinguish the lowercase i and j from other characters, especially in handwritten or densely set text. The word itself is uncommon in everyday conversation, so most readers call it “the dot above the i” rather than using its technical name.

When a diacritic occupies the same position, the ordinary tittle is often omitted, as in í or ĵ. It may remain when the diacritic appears elsewhere, as in į. The term has an unexpectedly literary appearance in the King James Bible, where “one jot or one tittle” refers to the smallest details of written law. An umlaut is a different mark, and “dot” describes the shape without naming this particular typographic feature.