HTML entities
An HTML entity writes a character by name instead of by the character itself — & for &, for a non-breaking space. Five of them are not optional: in HTML source, an ampersand or an angle bracket that is meant literally has to be escaped, or the browser reads it as markup.
The rest are a convenience, and less needed than they used to be. A page served as UTF-8 can contain é, — and → directly. Entities still earn their place where the character is invisible or ambiguous ( versus a plain space), where the pipeline is not reliably UTF-8, and in email templates, which remain the last place encoding still goes wrong routinely.
This list is the exact set the site’s HTML entities tool encodes and decodes — the page and the tool read the same table, so they cannot drift apart.
Reserved characters
The five that must be escaped in HTML source. Everything else on this page is a convenience; these are correctness.
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | & | & | U+0026 |
| < | < | < | U+003C |
| > | > | > | U+003E |
| " | " | " | U+0022 |
| ' | ' | ' | U+0027 |
Spacing and punctuation
Dashes, quotation marks and the spaces that are not the space bar — the ones that break when pasted from a word processor.
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| | non-breaking space |   | U+00A0 |
|   | en space |   | U+2002 |
|   | em space |   | U+2003 |
|   | thin space |   | U+2009 |
| ­ | soft hyphen | ­ | U+00AD |
| — | — | — | U+2014 |
| – | – | – | U+2013 |
| ― | ― | ― | U+2015 |
| ‘ | ‘ | ‘ | U+2018 |
| ’ | ’ | ’ | U+2019 |
| ‚ | ‚ | ‚ | U+201A |
| “ | “ | “ | U+201C |
| ” | ” | ” | U+201D |
| „ | „ | „ | U+201E |
| … | … | … | U+2026 |
| • | • | • | U+2022 |
| · | · | · | U+00B7 |
| « | « | « | U+00AB |
| » | » | » | U+00BB |
| ‹ | ‹ | ‹ | U+2039 |
| › | › | › | U+203A |
| † | † | † | U+2020 |
| ‡ | ‡ | ‡ | U+2021 |
| ‰ | ‰ | ‰ | U+2030 |
| ′ | ′ | ′ | U+2032 |
| ″ | ″ | ″ | U+2033 |
| § | § | § | U+00A7 |
| ¶ | ¶ | ¶ | U+00B6 |
| ¡ | ¡ | ¡ | U+00A1 |
| ¿ | ¿ | ¿ | U+00BF |
| ¦ | ¦ | ¦ | U+00A6 |
| ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | U+00A8 |
| ¯ | ¯ | ¯ | U+00AF |
| ´ | ´ | ´ | U+00B4 |
| ¸ | ¸ | ¸ | U+00B8 |
| ª | ª | ª | U+00AA |
| º | º | º | U+00BA |
Symbols and currency
31 entities
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| © | © | © | U+00A9 |
| ® | ® | ® | U+00AE |
| ™ | ™ | ™ | U+2122 |
| ° | ° | ° | U+00B0 |
| ± | ± | ± | U+00B1 |
| ¹ | ¹ | ¹ | U+00B9 |
| ² | ² | ² | U+00B2 |
| ³ | ³ | ³ | U+00B3 |
| ¼ | ¼ | ¼ | U+00BC |
| ½ | ½ | ½ | U+00BD |
| ¾ | ¾ | ¾ | U+00BE |
| × | × | × | U+00D7 |
| ÷ | ÷ | ÷ | U+00F7 |
| − | − | − | U+2212 |
| ≠ | ≠ | ≠ | U+2260 |
| ≤ | ≤ | ≤ | U+2264 |
| ≥ | ≥ | ≥ | U+2265 |
| ≈ | ≈ | ≈ | U+2248 |
| ≡ | ≡ | ≡ | U+2261 |
| ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | U+221E |
| √ | √ | √ | U+221A |
| ∑ | ∑ | ∑ | U+2211 |
| ∏ | ∏ | ∏ | U+220F |
| ∂ | ∂ | ∂ | U+2202 |
| ∫ | ∫ | ∫ | U+222B |
| µ | µ | µ | U+00B5 |
| € | € | € | U+20AC |
| £ | £ | £ | U+00A3 |
| ¥ | ¥ | ¥ | U+00A5 |
| ¢ | ¢ | ¢ | U+00A2 |
| ¤ | ¤ | ¤ | U+00A4 |
Arrows
11 entities
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| ← | ← | ← | U+2190 |
| ↑ | ↑ | ↑ | U+2191 |
| → | → | → | U+2192 |
| ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | U+2193 |
| ↔ | ↔ | ↔ | U+2194 |
| ↵ | ↵ | ↵ | U+21B5 |
| ⇐ | ⇐ | ⇐ | U+21D0 |
| ⇑ | ⇑ | ⇑ | U+21D1 |
| ⇒ | ⇒ | ⇒ | U+21D2 |
| ⇓ | ⇓ | ⇓ | U+21D3 |
| ⇔ | ⇔ | ⇔ | U+21D4 |
Greek letters
Used far more often for mathematics and physics than for Greek text.
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| α | α | α | U+03B1 |
| β | β | β | U+03B2 |
| γ | γ | γ | U+03B3 |
| δ | δ | δ | U+03B4 |
| ε | ε | ε | U+03B5 |
| ζ | ζ | ζ | U+03B6 |
| η | η | η | U+03B7 |
| θ | θ | θ | U+03B8 |
| ι | ι | ι | U+03B9 |
| κ | κ | κ | U+03BA |
| λ | λ | λ | U+03BB |
| μ | μ | μ | U+03BC |
| ν | ν | ν | U+03BD |
| ξ | ξ | ξ | U+03BE |
| π | π | π | U+03C0 |
| ρ | ρ | ρ | U+03C1 |
| σ | σ | σ | U+03C3 |
| τ | τ | τ | U+03C4 |
| υ | υ | υ | U+03C5 |
| φ | φ | φ | U+03C6 |
| χ | χ | χ | U+03C7 |
| ψ | ψ | ψ | U+03C8 |
| ω | ω | ω | U+03C9 |
| Α | Α | Α | U+0391 |
| Β | Β | Β | U+0392 |
| Γ | Γ | Γ | U+0393 |
| Δ | Δ | Δ | U+0394 |
| Θ | Θ | Θ | U+0398 |
| Λ | Λ | Λ | U+039B |
| Π | Π | Π | U+03A0 |
| Σ | Σ | Σ | U+03A3 |
| Φ | Φ | Φ | U+03A6 |
| Ψ | Ψ | Ψ | U+03A8 |
| Ω | Ω | Ω | U+03A9 |
Accented letters
Rarely needed today — a UTF-8 page can carry these characters directly. They matter in email templates and older systems.
| Entity | Character | Numeric | Code point |
|---|---|---|---|
| à | à | à | U+00E0 |
| á | á | á | U+00E1 |
| â | â | â | U+00E2 |
| ã | ã | ã | U+00E3 |
| ä | ä | ä | U+00E4 |
| å | å | å | U+00E5 |
| æ | æ | æ | U+00E6 |
| ç | ç | ç | U+00E7 |
| è | è | è | U+00E8 |
| é | é | é | U+00E9 |
| ê | ê | ê | U+00EA |
| ë | ë | ë | U+00EB |
| ì | ì | ì | U+00EC |
| í | í | í | U+00ED |
| î | î | î | U+00EE |
| ï | ï | ï | U+00EF |
| ñ | ñ | ñ | U+00F1 |
| ò | ò | ò | U+00F2 |
| ó | ó | ó | U+00F3 |
| ô | ô | ô | U+00F4 |
| õ | õ | õ | U+00F5 |
| ö | ö | ö | U+00F6 |
| ø | ø | ø | U+00F8 |
| œ | œ | œ | U+0153 |
| ù | ù | ù | U+00F9 |
| ú | ú | ú | U+00FA |
| û | û | û | U+00FB |
| ü | ü | ü | U+00FC |
| ý | ý | ý | U+00FD |
| ÿ | ÿ | ÿ | U+00FF |
| ß | ß | ß | U+00DF |
| š | š | š | U+0161 |
| Š | Š | Š | U+0160 |
| ž | ž | ž | U+017E |
| Ž | Ž | Ž | U+017D |
| À | À | À | U+00C0 |
| Á | Á | Á | U+00C1 |
| Â | Â | Â | U+00C2 |
| Ä | Ä | Ä | U+00C4 |
| Å | Å | Å | U+00C5 |
| Æ | Æ | Æ | U+00C6 |
| Ç | Ç | Ç | U+00C7 |
| È | È | È | U+00C8 |
| É | É | É | U+00C9 |
| Ê | Ê | Ê | U+00CA |
| Í | Í | Í | U+00CD |
| Ñ | Ñ | Ñ | U+00D1 |
| Ó | Ó | Ó | U+00D3 |
| Ö | Ö | Ö | U+00D6 |
| Ø | Ø | Ø | U+00D8 |
| Π| Π| Π| U+0152 |
| Ú | Ú | Ú | U+00DA |
| Ü | Ü | Ü | U+00DC |
| Ý | Ý | Ý | U+00DD |
| ð | ð | ð | U+00F0 |
| þ | þ | þ | U+00FE |
| Ð | Ð | Ð | U+00D0 |
| Þ | Þ | Þ | U+00DE |
FAQ
Which characters must be escaped in HTML?
In text content, & and < strictly must be. Inside an attribute value you also need the quote character that delimits it. Escaping >, " and ' everywhere is common practice because it is easier to apply one rule than to track which context you are in.
What is the difference between and a normal space?
A non-breaking space renders like a space but forbids a line break at that point, and consecutive ones are not collapsed the way ordinary whitespace is. That makes it right for "10 kg" and wrong for indentation or layout spacing.
Should I use named entities or numeric ones?
Named entities are readable — © says what it is where © does not. Numeric ones work for every character in Unicode, including the ones with no name at all, and are the only option outside HTML: XML defines just five names.
Why does my page show &amp; instead of &?
It was escaped twice — text that already contained & went through an encoder again, turning the & of the entity into & in turn. It is the classic symptom of escaping on both write and render.
Do I still need entities on a UTF-8 page?
Only for the reserved characters. Everything else can be the literal character, which is shorter and easier to read and search. Entities remain useful for invisible characters, where you want the source to be explicit about what is there.