The symbol œ is a lowercase ligature of the letters o and e. The letter ⟨ɶ⟩, a small capital version of the ⟨Œ⟩ ligature, is used for a different vowel sound: the open front rounded vowel.

The open-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨œ⟩, which is the convention used in this article.

The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨œ͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.

Another possible transcription is ⟨œʷ⟩ or ⟨ɛʷ⟩ (an open-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but it could be misread as a diphthong.