HTML - Character Entities

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HTML Entities

HTML entities are used to display special characters on the webpage that are reserved in HTML or have special meaning. HTML entities are also useful to display characters that are not available on the standard keyword.

An HTML entity starts with the ampersand sign (&) and ends with a semicolon (;).

Example

For example, the less than and greater than have special meaning in HTML, and they must be replaced with HTML entities to display them on the webpage.

  • To display less than (<), use the &lt;
  • To display greater than (>), use the &gt;

HTML Character Entities

HTML character entities represent special characters in HTML and begin with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;). These character entities allow you to display the characters on the webpages that cannot be displayed in the normal way as they have special meanings in HTML such as less than (<), greater than (>), Ampersand sing (&), and more.

The following table lists five special characters with their entities that every browser supports:

Symbol Description Entity Name Number Code
" Quotation mark &quot; &#34;
' Apostrophe &apos; &#39;
& Ampersand &amp; &#38;
< Less than &lt; &#60;
> Greater than &gt; &#62;

HTML Non-breaking Space Entity

A non-breaking space does not break into a new line. HTML non-breaking space can be represented using &nbsp; entity. It is useful when you want to display multiple spaces on the webpage because HTML trims the multiple spaces into a single space if you type it normally.

Note:

  • Two words that are separated by `&nbsp` will stick together even at the end of a line.
  • If you write 5 spaces in your text using the space bar, the browser will only add 1 space. To add real spaces to your text, you can use the `&nbsp` character entity.

Example of HTML Entities

The following example demonstrates how you can display special characters using HTML character entities:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>HTML Character Entities Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>HTML Character Entities Example</h1>
    <p>Some common HTML character entities are:</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Quotation mark: <code>&quot;Hello World&quot;</code></li>
      <li>Apostrophe: <code>&apos;This is Kelly's Laptop.&apos;</code></li>
      <li>Ampersand: <code>&amp;This &amp; that.</code></li>
      <li>Less-than sign: <code>&lt;</code></li>
      <li>Greater-than sign: <code>&gt;</code></li>
    </ul>
    <p>Here all symbols (displaying directly):</p>
    <p>Quotation mark: &quot;  |  Apostrophe: &apos;  |  Ampersand: &amp;  |  Less-than: &lt;  |  Greater-than: &gt;</p>
  </body>
</html>

There is also a long list of special characters in HTML 4.0. In order for these to appear in your document, you can use either the numerical codes or the entity names. For example, to insert a copyright symbol, you can use either of the following:

&copy; 2007
or
&#169; 2007

ISO 8859-1 Symbol Entities

Following are the ISO 8859-1 symbol entities that are listed below:

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
  non-breaking space &nbsp; &#160;
¡ inverted exclamation mark &iexcl; &#161;
¤ currency &curren; &#164;
¢ cent &cent; &#162;
£ pound &pound; &#163;
¥ yen &yen; &#165;
¦ broken vertical bar &brvbar; &#166;
§ section &sect; &#167;
¨ spacing diaeresis &uml; &#168;
© copyright &copy; &#169;
ª feminine ordinal indicator &ordf; &#170;
« angle quotation mark (left) &laquo; &#171;
¬ negation &not; &#172;
­ soft hyphen &shy; &#173;
® registered trademark &reg; &#174;
™ trademark &trade; &#8482;
¯ spacing macron &macr; &#175;
° degree &deg; &#176;
± plus-or-minus  &plusmn; &#177;
² superscript 2 &sup2; &#178;
³ superscript 3 &sup3; &#179;
´ spacing acute &acute; &#180;
µ micro &micro; &#181;
paragraph &para; &#182;
· middle dot &middot; &#183;
¸ spacing cedilla &cedil; &#184;
¹ superscript 1 &sup1; &#185;
º masculine ordinal indicator &ordm; &#186;
» angle quotation mark (right) &raquo; &#187;
¼ fraction 1/4 &frac14; &#188;
½ fraction 1/2 &frac12; &#189;
¾ fraction 3/4 &frac34; &#190;
¿ inverted question mark &iquest; &#191;
× multiplication &times; &#215;
÷ division &divide; &#247;

ISO 8859-1 Character Entities

Following are the ISO 8859-1 character entities that are listed below:

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
À capital a, grave accent &Agrave; &#192;
Á capital a, acute accent &Aacute; &#193;
 capital a, circumflex accent &Acirc; &#194;
à capital a, tilde &Atilde; &#195;
Ä capital a, umlaut mark &Auml; &#196;
Å capital a, ring &Aring; &#197;
Æ capital ae &AElig; &#198;
Ç capital c, cedilla &Ccedil; &#199;
È capital e, grave accent &Egrave; &#200;
É capital e, acute accent &Eacute; &#201;
Ê capital e, circumflex accent &Ecirc; &#202;
Ë capital e, umlaut mark &Euml; &#203;
Ì capital i, grave accent &Igrave; &#204;
Í capital i, acute accent &Iacute; &#205;
Î capital i, circumflex accent &Icirc; &#206;
Ï capital i, umlaut mark &Iuml; &#207;
Ð capital eth, Icelandic &ETH; &#208;
Ñ capital n, tilde &Ntilde; &#209;
Ò capital o, grave accent &Ograve; &#210;
Ó capital o, acute accent &Oacute; &#211;
Ô capital o, circumflex accent &Ocirc; &#212;
Õ capital o, tilde &Otilde; &#213;
Ö capital o, umlaut mark &Ouml; &#214;
Ø capital o, slash &Oslash; &#216;
Ù capital u, grave accent &Ugrave; &#217;
Ú capital u, acute accent &Uacute; &#218;
Û capital u, circumflex accent &Ucirc; &#219;
Ü capital u, umlaut mark &Uuml; &#220;
Ý capital y, acute accent &Yacute; &#221;
Þ capital THORN, Icelandic &THORN; &#222;
ß small sharp s, German &szlig; &#223;
à small a, grave accent &agrave; &#224;
á small a, acute accent &aacute; &#225;
â small a, circumflex accent &acirc; &#226;
ã small a, tilde &atilde; &#227;
ä small a, umlaut mark &auml; &#228;
å small a, ring &aring; &#229;
æ small ae &aelig; &#230;
ç small c, cedilla &ccedil; &#231;
è small e, grave accent &egrave; &#232;
é small e, acute accent &eacute; &#233;
ê small e, circumflex accent &ecirc; &#234;
ë small e, umlaut mark &euml; &#235;
ì small i, grave accent &igrave; &#236;
í small i, acute accent &iacute; &#237;
î small i, circumflex accent &icirc; &#238;
ï small i, umlaut mark &iuml; &#239;
ð small eth, Icelandic &eth; &#240;
ñ small n, tilde &ntilde; &#241;
ò small o, grave accent &ograve; &#242;
ó small o, acute accent &oacute; &#243;
ô small o, circumflex accent &ocirc; &#244;
õ small o, tilde &otilde; &#245;
ö small o, umlaut mark &ouml; &#246;
ø small o, slash &oslash; &#248;
ù small u, grave accent &ugrave; &#249;
ú small u, acute accent &uacute; &#250;
û small u, circumflex accent &ucirc; &#251;
ü small u, umlaut mark &uuml; &#252;
ý small y, acute accent &yacute; &#253;
þ small thorn, Icelandic &thorn; &#254;
ÿ small y, umlaut mark &yuml; &#255;

Other Entities Supported by Browsers

Following are the other entities that are supported by browsers:

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
Πcapital ligature OE &OElig; &#338;
œ small ligature oe &oelig; &#339;
Š capital S with caron &Scaron; &#352;
š small S with caron &scaron; &#353;
Ÿ capital Y with diaeres &Yuml; &#376;
ˆ modifier letter circumflex accent &circ; &#710;
˜ small tilde &tilde; &#732;
  en space &ensp; &#8194;
  em space &emsp; &#8195;
  thin space &thinsp; &#8201;
‌ zero width non-joiner &zwnj; &#8204;
‍ zero width joiner &zwj; &#8205;
‎ left-to-right mark &lrm; &#8206;
‏ right-to-left mark &rlm; &#8207;
– en dash &ndash; &#8211;
— em dash &mdash; &#8212;
‘ left single quotation mark &lsquo; &#8216;
’ right single quotation mark &rsquo; &#8217;
‚ single low-9 quotation mark &sbquo; &#8218;
“ left double quotation mark &ldquo; &#8220;
” right double quotation mark &rdquo; &#8221;
„ double low-9 quotation mark &bdquo; &#8222;
† dagger &dagger; &#8224;
‡ double dagger &Dagger; &#8225;
… horizontal ellipsis &hellip; &#8230;
‰ per mille  &permil; &#8240;
‹ single left-pointing angle quotation &lsaquo; &#8249;
› single right-pointing angle quotation &rsaquo; &#8250;
€ euro &euro; &#8364;
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