Every named HTML entity in one searchable list
HTML entities let you write characters that are reserved in HTML or hard to type. < shows a less-than sign without starting a tag, inserts a non-breaking space and → draws an arrow. HTML5 defines more than 2,000 named references; many are aliases of the same character. This HTML entities list shows one canonical name per character — over 1,400 entries — with its numeric codes. For a few characters the listed name is a less familiar alias: … appears as … rather than …, ± as ± rather than ± and ½ as ½ rather than ½. When a name returns nothing, search for the character itself or its code point.
Columns
- Char: the rendered character.
- Named entity: e.g.
©for ©. - Decimal / Hex: numeric references such as
©and©, which work for every Unicode character, even those without a name. - Code point: the Unicode number, e.g. U+00A9.
- CSS: the escape for the CSS
contentproperty, e.g.\A9.
Which entities do you actually need?
In a UTF-8 document you can type most characters directly — é, €, → — and they display correctly. Entities remain essential for the five characters with special meaning in HTML: & (&), < (<), > (>), " (") and ' ('), and they are handy for invisible characters such as , ­ (soft hyphen) or ​, which are otherwise impossible to see in source code.
Popular entities
| Character | Entity | Use |
|---|---|---|
| | Keep words together (e.g. "10 km") | |
| © | © | Copyright notices |
| – — | – — | Ranges and breaks in sentences |
| → | → | "Next" links |
| × | × | Close buttons, dimensions |
Convert whole texts with text to HTML entities and back with HTML entities to text, or escape markup safely with HTML escape.
Using entities in CSS and JavaScript
Entities only work inside HTML. In CSS, use the escape from the CSS column in the content property, for example content: "\2192"; for an arrow. In JavaScript strings use \u2192. The category filter groups common typographic characters, arrows, mathematical operators, currency symbols, Greek letters and accented Latin letters, which makes it quick to find the symbol you need without knowing its name. Search matches names, characters and codes, so typing "2192", "rarr" or "→" all find the same entry.
Entities that are easy to confuse
| Entities | Difference |
|---|---|
      | A non-breaking space, then spaces half an em, a full em and a thin fraction of an em wide. Only prevents a line break. |
- – — − | Hyphen, en dash for ranges (9–5), em dash for breaks in a sentence and the true minus sign for math. |
× and the letter x | Only × is the multiplication sign, which screen readers announce correctly. |
′ ’ ' | Prime for feet and minutes, a typographic apostrophe, and the plain typewriter quote. |
Entities in XML, SVG and RSS
XML predefines only five named entities: &, <, >, " and '. A named HTML entity such as or © makes an XML, SVG or RSS file fail to parse. Use the decimal or hex column instead, for example  , which works in both HTML and XML.
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