Punctuation before or after superscript of date?

Question

Where do I insert the period when using superscripts for "th" of a date?

For example see below. They both seem wrong to me even though the first version seems more "wrong" than the second version:

• on the 25^th.
• on the 25.^th

Answer 1

You wouldn’t write it out as “twenty fif.th”, so you wouldn’t put the period in the middle of the word when using superscripts either.

If you are using a style guide, check to see if dates should have superscripts or not. APA style, for example, says to make it regular case, which would be:

• on the 25th.

If you’re not using a style guide, consider writing it like this.

Answer 2

I think it's more of a stenography/typewriting question. If you are writing it then you put it in the natural place. If you are typesetting it with a computer, you can kern it. See below the period is kerned by -0.8 em.

Answer 3

The first, the latter would be applicable for footnotes

Answer 4

A period (if that punctuation mark is used) always comes at the end of a sentence. So, if having to choose between your two examples, the second is automatically eliminated on the basis of grammar.

But is the first version correct?

on the 25^th.

It comes down to style.

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Do you use superscript text in the first place? Some guides would say not to use superscript here. (My personal choice would be to use normal text.)

on the 25th.

But since it's a given in your question, let's assume that you already follow guidance that puts th in superscript.

My personal intuition is that if th is in superscript, it would look more natural to have the period also be in superscript:

on the 25^th.

Unless prohibited by the same style guide, that seems the most readable to me.

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But there is no single answer to this. Just be consistent.