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Case file

Inverted nun

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif”. Today it says “rare glyph used in classical hebrew”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip”. It now reads “Classical Hebrew glyph Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025

Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip Inverted nun - Z-shape Inverted nun ( נו"ן מנוזרת ‎ "isolated nun " or נו"ן הפוכה ‎ "inverted nun " or " ׆ ‎" in Hebrew ) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image , and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places: Numbers - twice, 10:35–36: the two verses are delineated by inverted nuns , sometimes isolated outside the passage text and sometimes embedded within words in verses 10:35 and 11:1. Psalms - seven times in Psalm 107 (vs 23-28, vs 40) The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above.

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1288834274.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif”. Today it says “rare glyph used in classical hebrew”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip Inverted nun - horizontal flip”. It now reads “Classical Hebrew glyph Ordinary letter nun Inverted nun - vertical flip”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
disputed01111
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

rare character – the letter nun in mirror image – which appears in the masoretic text of the tanakh in nine dif

Now

rare glyph used in classical hebrew

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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