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How to Write O in Cursive

By Maya Chen, lettering designer and type educator · Checked by Jordan Hale · · How we review content

Capital O
Lowercase o

Typeface: Playwrite US Trad (traditional school cursive).

Capital O difficulty
Lowercase o difficulty

Cursive o is an oval with a twist at the top. The lowercase closes at the midline and then leaves sideways with a short bridge stroke instead of dropping to the baseline, and that bridge changes how every following letter begins. Capital O is one of the capitals that traditionally doesn't connect: it closes with a small inner loop and stops.

Neither O is hard to draw on its own. The difficulty is the lowercase bridge: letters after o begin from the midline instead of the baseline, so or, os, ov and ow each have to be learned as separate joins. Capital O just needs a counterclockwise start and a neat closing loop.

Key facts

  • Capital O in cursive starts just below the top line, on the right side of the oval.
  • Lowercase o in cursive starts just below the midline, on the right side of the oval, after the connecting stroke.
  • Capital O traditionally does not connect.
  • Lowercase o is in the same stroke family as a, d, g, q and c, so practising them together saves time.
  • We rate capital O 2 out of 5 and lowercase o 2 out of 5 for difficulty.

Copy and paste a cursive O

Open in the cursive text generator →

How to write a cursive capital O

The traditional cursive capital O is a tall slanted oval drawn counterclockwise from the top, with a small loop inside the top where the stroke closes, finishing with a short curve to the right.

Start: Just below the top line, on the right side of the oval.

  1. 1Start just below the top line and curve up and to the left, moving counterclockwise.
  2. 2Continue the downcurve all the way to the baseline, keeping the oval slanted to match your lowercase letters.
  3. 3Curve up the right side and back to the top, closing the oval near where you started.
  4. 4Make a small loop just inside the top of the oval, then finish with a short curve out to the right near the top line.

Connecting: Capital O traditionally does not connect. Lift after the closing curve and start the next letter close by, as in Olivia or Oscar. Some adult hands carry the final stroke down into the next letter, which is fine as long as the O stays closed.

How to write a cursive lowercase o

Lowercase cursive o is a small counterclockwise oval in the middle zone that closes at the midline and leaves with a short, nearly horizontal bridge to the right.

Start: Just below the midline, on the right side of the oval, after the connecting stroke. · Letter family: Downcurve letters (a, d, g, o, q, c): o shares its counterclockwise oval with a, d, g and q.

  1. 1Bring the connecting stroke up to the midline, then curve back to the left to begin the oval.
  2. 2Make a downcurve, counterclockwise, to the baseline.
  3. 3Curve up the right side to the midline and close the oval exactly where you began.
  4. 4Without dropping down, slide right along the midline in a short, slightly drooping bridge stroke.
  5. 5Let the bridge lead directly into the next letter, which starts from the midline instead of the baseline.

Connecting: Lowercase o enters like the other downcurve letters, with a stroke that climbs to the midline and turns back left. It exits differently: the bridge leaves at the midline, so the next letter begins high. Cursive b, v and w end with the same kind of bridge.

Joining o to other letters

  • oo: In book and cool, the bridge from the first o leads straight into the second oval. Curve the bridge back to the left to start the second o; never drop to the baseline between them.
  • or: One of the hardest joins in cursive. From the bridge, rise slightly to make r's peak, add the short shoulder, then slant down. Without the rise, 'for' looks like 'fov'.
  • on: After the bridge, roll into n's first hump without dipping to the baseline. Two clear humps must follow, or 'on' becomes 'or'.
  • ow: From the bridge, swing down into w's first point and back up. In own and brown the w also ends in a bridge, so two bridges sit side by side and both must stay at the midline.

Common mistakes with cursive O

  • Drawing the oval clockwise

    Start at the top right and go counterclockwise, as you would for a or d. A clockwise o can't reach its bridge without an extra loop or a retrace.

  • Dropping to the baseline after the o

    Keep the exit at the midline. An oval followed by a downstroke and an undercurve is a cursive a, so 'boat' starts to read as 'baat'.

  • Leaving the oval open at the top

    Close the oval at the midline before the bridge. An open o looks like a u or v, and 'on' can be misread as 'un'.

  • Making capital O round and upright

    Slant capital O at the same angle as your lowercase. An upright circle beside slanted letters looks like the digit zero.

Easily confused with: Lowercase o is mistaken for a (bridge dropped to the baseline), u (open top) and v (narrow oval). Capital O can be confused with capital D in some hands, and with the number zero when it stands upright.

Practice words with o

  • Olivia
  • October
  • orange
  • book
  • cooking
  • zoo

Printable practice sheet

Trace the grey letters, then write your own on the empty lines. Prints on one page (Letter or A4).

Cursive O o practice

Name: ____________________   coolletteringgenerator.com

Cursive O as a Unicode character

Lowercase script o is the borrowed one here: ℴ is U+2134 from Letterlike Symbols, while capital 𝒪 sits with the rest of the script alphabet. In a name like 𝒥ℴ𝓈𝒽 the o can look a touch heavier or lighter than its neighbours, depending on the font. Bold script 𝓞 and 𝓸 have no exceptions. For O in other styles, see O in different fonts.

StyleCapitalLowercaseCode points
Bold Cursive𝓞𝓸U+1D4DE · U+1D4F8
Cursive Script𝒪ℴU+1D4AA · U+2134 *
Italic Serif𝑂𝑜U+1D442 · U+1D45C
Bold Italic Serif𝑶𝒐U+1D476 · U+1D490
Italic Sans𝘖𝘰U+1D616 · U+1D630

* Borrowed from the Letterlike Symbols block (U+2100–214F), so it may look slightly different from neighbouring letters in some fonts.

Cursive O: questions

Why does the cursive o have a tail at the top?
That little horizontal stroke is called a bridge or sidestroke. Because o closes at the midline, the pen leaves from there instead of dropping to the baseline, and the next letter begins high. Cursive b, v and w end with the same bridge, which is why joins after those four letters need extra practice.
Does cursive capital O connect to the next letter?
In Zaner-Bloser and Palmer cursive it does not. You close the oval, make a small loop inside the top, curve out to the right and lift. Some adults carry that last stroke into the next letter in everyday handwriting. Either way, keep the oval fully closed so it can't be read as a C or U.
How do you write 'or' in cursive?
Write the o and close it at the midline. From the bridge, rise slightly to make the pointed peak of the r, slide right for its shoulder, then slant down to the baseline and exit. The small rise matters most: without it the r has no peak and the pair looks like ov.
Why is the script lowercase o a different character?
Script ℴ is U+2134 in the Letterlike Symbols block. Unicode encoded it as a symbol before the full mathematical script alphabet was added, and the newer block left a gap where it would have gone. Some fonts draw ℴ a little differently from its neighbours. Bold script 𝓸 has no exception.

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