HTML Entities & Character References
Find commonly used HTML character references, reserved characters, punctuation, spaces, and symbols in quick lookup tables.
This reference organizes characters into categories so they are easier to find. Individual reference pages include the displayed character along with available named character references, decimal character references, and hexadecimal character references.
Reserved HTML Characters
Use character references when reserved characters must appear as text or inside attribute values. Escape ampersands and less-than signs in text; escape the quotation mark used to delimit an attribute value.
| Character | Named | Decimal | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | & | & | Ampersand in HTML text and attributes |
| < | < | < | Less-than sign, including displayed markup |
| > | > | > | Greater-than sign, including displayed markup |
| " | " | " | Double quotation mark in double-quoted attributes |
| ' | ' | ' | Apostrophe in single-quoted attributes |
Character Reference Formats
| Format | Example Source | Displays |
|---|---|---|
| Named | © | © |
| Decimal | © | © |
| Hexadecimal | © | © |
Common HTML Entities
Some character references are used frequently because their characters have special meaning in HTML or are commonly needed in webpage content.
| Character | Named | Decimal | Hexadecimal | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| & | & |
& |
& |
Ampersand |
| < | < |
< |
< |
Less-than sign |
| > | > |
> |
> |
Greater-than sign |
| " | " |
" |
" |
Quotation mark |
| ' | ' |
' |
' |
Apostrophe |
|
  |
  |
Non-breaking space | |
| © | © |
© |
© |
Copyright sign |
| ® | ® |
® |
® |
Registered sign |
| ™ | ™ |
™ |
™ |
Trademark sign |
Spaces, Dashes, and Punctuation
| Character | Named | Decimal | Hexadecimal | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-breaking space | |   |   | Keeps adjacent text together |
| – | – | – | – | En dash, commonly used for ranges |
| — | — | — | — | Em dash, used for breaks in sentences |
| … | … | … | … | Ellipsis |
| • | • | • | • | Bullet symbol |
| ‘ | ‘ | ‘ | ‘ | Left single quotation mark |
| ’ | ’ | ’ | ’ | Right single quotation mark |
| “ | “ | “ | “ | Left double quotation mark |
| ” | ” | ” | ” | Right double quotation mark |
| € | € | € | € | Euro sign |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | Pound sterling sign |
Character Categories
Use the following reference pages to browse characters and symbols by category.
| Reference | Description |
|---|---|
| Latin Characters | Latin letters, accented characters, and related characters. |
| Greek Characters | Greek letters and related characters. |
| Cyrillic Characters | Cyrillic letters and related characters. |
| Arabic Scripts | Arabic-script characters and related symbols. |
| Indic Scripts | Characters used by Indic writing systems. |
| CJK & East Asian Characters | Characters and symbols used in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other East Asian writing systems. |
| Non-Latin Characters | Additional characters from writing systems outside the Latin alphabet. |
| Ancient Scripts | Characters from historical and ancient writing systems. |
| Egyptian Hieroglyphs | Unicode characters representing Egyptian hieroglyphs. |
| Currency Symbols | Currency signs and monetary symbols. |
| Math Symbols | Mathematical operators, relations, and other mathematical symbols. |
| Arrows | Directional arrows and related arrow symbols. |
| Punctuation | Punctuation marks, quotation marks, dashes, and related characters. |
| Technical Symbols | Technical, computing, control, and miscellaneous specialized symbols. |
| Letterlike Symbols | Symbols whose appearance or meaning is based on letters. |
| Geometric Shapes | Squares, circles, triangles, diamonds, and other geometric symbols. |
| Box Drawing & Block Elements | Line-drawing characters, blocks, shades, and related graphical characters. |
| Astrological & Weather Symbols | Astrological, astronomical, and weather-related symbols. |
| Game Symbols | Playing cards, chess pieces, dice, and other game-related symbols. |
| Other Symbols | Additional symbols that do not fit within the other reference categories. |
Usage Quick Reference
| When Needed | HTML Source | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Display markup | <p> | <p> |
| Display an ampersand | HTML & CSS | HTML & CSS |
| Keep a value and unit together | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Show copyright | © 2026 | © 2026 |
| Show an en dash | 10–20 | 10–20 |
| Show an em dash | HTML—CSS | HTML—CSS |
For explanations and examples, see the HTML Entities Introduction.