Updated June 29, 2026
HTML entities reference
HTML entities encode characters that are reserved in markup or hard to type. Each has a named form like & and a numeric form like &. Copy whichever your editor prefers.
Reserved characters
These must be escaped in HTML text content.
| Char | Named | Numeric | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
& | & | & | Ampersand. |
< | < | < | Less-than sign. |
> | > | > | Greater-than sign. |
" | " | " | Double quote. |
' | ' | ' | Apostrophe (no widely supported short name). |
Spaces and dashes
| Char | Named | Numeric | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
(space) | |   | Non-breaking space. |
- | – | – | En dash. |
- | — | — | Em dash. |
... | … | … | Horizontal ellipsis. |
Symbols
| Char | Named | Numeric | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
(c) | © | © | Copyright sign. |
(r) | ® | ® | Registered trademark. |
(tm) | ™ | ™ | Trademark sign. |
deg | ° | ° | Degree sign. |
EUR | € | € | Euro sign. |
-> | → | → | Rightwards arrow. |
When you need entitiesOn a UTF-8 page you can type most symbols directly. Entities are essential for the reserved characters
& < > and useful for invisible ones like the non-breaking space.References
Questions
Should I use the named or numeric form?
Either works. Named entities like © are easier to read; numeric entities like © always exist even when no name is defined for a character.
Why is there no ' in the list?
' is defined in XML and HTML5 but was not in older HTML, so ' is the most universally safe way to encode an apostrophe.