Zero-width non-joiner

The zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ, /zwɪndʒ/) (‌) is a non-printing character used in the computerization of writing systems that make use of ligatures. When placed between two characters that would otherwise be connected into a ligature, a ZWNJ causes them to be printed in their final and initial forms, respectively. This is also an effect of a space character, but a ZWNJ is used when it is desirable to keep the characters closer together or to connect a word with its morpheme.

The ZWNJ is encoded in Unicode as U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER (‌).