HTML Special Characters Reference: Complete Entity Code Table

What Are HTML Special Characters?

HTML special characters are symbols that either have reserved meaning in HTML (like < and >) or fall outside the standard ASCII range. You represent them with entity codes so browsers render them correctly without misinterpreting your markup.

This reference organizes the most-used special characters by category, with all three entity formats — named, decimal, and hexadecimal.

Common Symbols

The first five — &, <, >, ", ' — are the characters you must encode any time they appear as data inside HTML. Omitting them can break parsing or open XSS vulnerabilities.

Currency Symbols

Note that many currency symbols lack named entities. Use decimal or hexadecimal codes for those.

Mathematical Symbols

Arrow Symbols

Typography and Punctuation

How to Use Entity Codes

Insert the entity directly into your HTML where you want the character to appear:

<p>Price: &euro;49.99</p>
<p>Temperature: 72&deg;F</p>
<p>Click Next &rarr; to continue</p>

For characters without a named entity, use the decimal or hex form:

<p>Not equal: a &#8800; b</p>
<p>Rupee: &#8377;1,000</p>

Browser Compatibility Notes

All modern browsers support the named, decimal, and hexadecimal entity formats described above. Here are a few edge cases to keep in mind:

• ' is defined in HTML5 and XML but was not valid in HTML4. Use ' if you need maximum backward compatibility.
• Numeric entities always work across browsers and HTML versions, even when named entities are unsupported.
• UTF-8 encoding makes most entities optional for display purposes — you can paste the literal character if your document declares <meta charset="utf-8">. However, you still need entities for <, >, &, ", and ' to avoid parsing issues.
• Email templates may not support all named entities. Prefer numeric codes for reliable rendering across email clients.

Key Takeaways

• Use named entities for readability when they exist; fall back to decimal or hex codes
• The five critical entities — &, <, >, ", ' — must always be encoded in HTML data
• Currency, math, arrow, and typographic symbols frequently require entity codes in web content
• Numeric entities work universally and cover the full Unicode range
• UTF-8 charset lets you insert most characters directly, but reserved characters still need encoding

Related Guides

• HTML Entities Guide
• HTML Encoding vs URL Encoding
• Percent-Encoding Reference

Try It Yourself

Look up, encode, and decode HTML special characters instantly with our free HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder tool.