WHATWG HTML Living Standard §13.5 2,125 Canonical Named References Decimal & Hex Numeric Codes

HTML Entities & Character References

HTML character references (commonly called HTML entities) represent characters in HTML markup using predefined mnemonic names or numeric Unicode code points. Named references exist for a finite, authoritative set of 2,125 canonical characters defined by the WHATWG HTML Living Standard, while numeric decimal (&#[dec];) and hexadecimal (&#x[hex];) references can represent any valid Unicode scalar value. Use character references to safely escape syntax-sensitive delimiters (&, <, >, ", ') or specify characters when source encoding is constrained.

2,125 Canonical Named References

106 Legacy Parser Aliases

93 Multi-Codepoint Sequences

1,112,064 Unicode Scalars (Numeric)

Showing 50 of 2125 canonical named entities

Common HTML Entities & Developer Quick Reference

The most frequently used HTML character references for web development, typography, mathematical formulas, and currency symbols. Click any code format to instantly copy it to your clipboard.

Ampersand (HTML syntax delimiter)

Named

Dec

Hex

Less-Than Sign (Tag open)

Named

Dec

Hex

Greater-Than Sign (Tag close)

Named

Dec

Hex

Quotation Mark (Double quote)

Named

Dec

Hex

Apostrophe (Single quote)

Named

Dec

Hex

No-Break Space (U+00A0)

Named

Dec

Hex

Named

Dec

Hex

Registered Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

™

Trade Mark Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

€

Euro Currency Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

Pound Currency Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

Yen Currency Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

Degree Symbol

Named

Dec

Hex

Plus-Minus Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

Multiplication Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

Division Sign

Named

Dec

Hex

∞

Infinity Symbol

Named

Dec

Hex

→

Rightwards Arrow

Named

Dec

Hex

♥

Black Heart Suit

Named

Dec

Hex

—

Em Dash

Named

Dec

Hex

Syntax-Sensitive Characters & Context-Aware Escaping

HTML defines five reserved delimiter characters that trigger parser state changes: & (entity introducer), < (tag opener), > (tag closer), " (attribute delimiter), and ' (attribute delimiter). Escaping these characters is essential to prevent parsing ambiguity and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. Whether escaping is mandatory depends strictly on the parsing context.

Char	Named Entity	Decimal	Hex	Unicode	Why Escaped & Parsing Risk
				`U+0026`
				`U+003C`
				`U+003E`
				`U+0022`
				`U+0027`

Context-Dependent Escaping Requirements

The HTML specification establishes different escaping constraints depending on where the character appears in the document object model:

HTML Text Content

Inside standard HTML element body text (e.g. paragraphs, spans, headings):

& → Must be escaped as & to prevent unintended entity parsing.
< → Must be escaped as < to prevent interpreting subsequent text as a new tag name.
> → Recommended as >, though technically allowed unless preceded by two hyphens or closing markup.
" and ' → Safe without escaping in body text.

attr="value"

Double-Quoted Attributes

Inside double-quoted attribute values (e.g. title="...", href="..."):

" → Must be escaped as " (prematurely terminates attribute value if unescaped).
& → Must be escaped as & when followed by a name character or hash.
< and > → Safe inside quotes, but escaping is recommended for consistency.
' → Safe without escaping inside double quotes.

attr='value'

Single-Quoted Attributes

Inside single-quoted attribute values (e.g. title='...'):

' → Must be escaped as ' or ' (prematurely terminates attribute value if unescaped).
& → Must be escaped as &.
" → Safe without escaping inside single quotes.
< and > → Safe inside quotes, recommended to escape.

attr=value

Unquoted Attributes (Dangerous)

In unquoted attributes (e.g. class=main):

Spaces, tabs, newlines → Strictly prohibited (breaks tokenization).
" ' = < > ` & → Must all be strictly escaped or avoided.
Best Practice: Always quote all HTML attribute values with double quotes. Never use unquoted attributes for dynamic content.

HTML Character References Directory

Authoritative, standards-compliant directory of all 2,125 canonical WHATWG named character references alongside their exact decimal (&#[dec];) and hexadecimal (&#x[hex];) numeric representations. Click any value to copy to clipboard.

Char	Named Reference	Decimal Code	Hexadecimal Code	Code Point	Category	Copy
Æ					Symbols
&					Common
Á					Symbols
Ă					Symbols
Â					Symbols
А					Symbols
𝔄					Symbols
À					Symbols
Α					Greek
Ā					Symbols
⩓					Math
Ą					Symbols
𝔸					Symbols
⁡					Symbols
Å					Symbols
𝒜					Symbols
≔					Math
Ã					Symbols
Ä					Symbols
∖					Math
⫧					Math
⌆					Symbols
Б					Symbols
∵					Math
ℬ					Symbols
Β					Greek
𝔅					Symbols
𝔹					Symbols
˘					Symbols
ℬ					Symbols
≎					Math
Ч					Symbols
©					Common
Ć					Symbols
⋒					Math
ⅅ					Symbols
ℭ					Symbols
Č					Symbols
Ç					Symbols
Ĉ					Symbols
∰					Math
Ċ					Symbols
¸					Symbols
·					Symbols
ℭ					Symbols
Χ					Greek
⊙					Math
⊖					Math
⊕					Math
⊗					Math

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Named References vs Numeric Codes (Decimal & Hex)

HTML provides three distinct syntaxes for referencing characters: mnemonic Named References, base-10 Decimal References, and base-16 Hexadecimal References. Understanding the capabilities and boundaries of each format is critical for modern web engineering.

Char	Character Name	Named Reference	Decimal Reference	Hexadecimal Reference	Code Point
	Copyright Sign
	Ampersand
	Euro Sign
	Grinning Face (No named entity)	None (Numeric only)

&name;

Named Character References

Syntax: &[name]; (e.g. ©, &)

Finite Vocabulary: Exactly 2,125 canonical names exist in the WHATWG specification. No other named entities are valid.
Strict Case Sensitivity: Character names are case-sensitive. Ε (Ε) produces Greek capital letter Epsilon (U+0395), whereas ε (ε) produces Greek small letter epsilon (U+03B5).
Readability: Highly mnemonic and easy for humans to read and audit in source templates.
Emoji Limitation: Modern emojis (such as 😀 U+1F600 or ❤️ U+2764) have zero named references. Trying to write &grinning; or &heart; will render verbatim as broken text.

&#dec;

Decimal Numeric References

Full Unicode Coverage: Can represent any of the 1,112,064 Unicode scalar values (U+0000 to U+10FFFF, excluding surrogates U+D800..U+DFFF).
Universal Parser Support: Supported by 100% of HTML, XML, SVG, and SGML parsers without requiring external entity catalogs or DTDs.
Base-10 Conversion: Requires converting hexadecimal Unicode codepoints to decimal (e.g. U+20AC → 8364).
Legacy Windows-1252 Pitfall: In older SGML/HTML 4 documents, numbers 128–159 were often used for Windows-1252 characters (e.g.  for €). Modern HTML5 parsers automatically re-map these control points, but standard authors should use the true Unicode codepoints (e.g. €).

&#xhex;

Hexadecimal Numeric References

Direct Unicode Alignment: Directly maps to Unicode code points without mathematical conversion (e.g. U+20AC → €).
Preferred for Developer Tooling: Because Unicode specifications, font tables, and IDEs reference characters by hex (U+XXXX), hexadecimal references reduce cognitive load and conversion bugs.
Case Insensitive 'x' and Digits: The leading indicator can be x or X, and hex digits a-f or A-F are parsed equivalently by compliant user agents.
Leading Zeros Optional: A, A, and A all evaluate to 'A' (U+0041).

Multi-Codepoint Entity Sequences (The 93 Compound References)

A common misconception among software engineers is that every HTML named reference maps to exactly one Unicode code point. In reality, the WHATWG HTML Living Standard defines exactly 93 named character references that expand into sequences of two distinct Unicode code points.

Advanced Parser Architecture

How HTML Parsers Process Compound Sequences

When an HTML5-compliant tokenizer encounters a named entity like &NotEqualTilde;, the named character reference state matches the full string and emits two distinct Unicode scalar values: U+2242 (Asymptotically Equal To) immediately followed by U+0338 (Combining Long Solidus Overlay).

Char	Named Reference	Unicode Codepoint Sequence	Compound Decimal Code	Compound Hexadecimal Code
≂̸	`&NotEqualTilde;`	`U+2242 U+0338`	`≂̸`	`≂̸`
=⃥	`&bne;`	`U+003D U+20E5`	`=⃥`	`=⃥`
∩︀	`&caps;`	`U+2229 U+FE00`	`∩︀`	`∩︀`
≡⃥	`&gne;`	`U+2265 U+0338`	`≱`	`≱`
≤⃥	`&lne;`	`U+2264 U+0338`	`≰`	`≰`

Critical Engineering Implications:

1. No Single Numeric Equivalent Exists

An HTML numeric entity syntax (&#[dec];) accepts only a single integer scalar value. To represent a multi-codepoint named entity numerically, you must concatenate two adjacent numeric references (e.g. ≂̸).

2. UTF-16 String Length Miscalculations

In JavaScript, C#, and Java, compound sequences may comprise 2 or 3 16-bit code units (especially if combining with surrogate pairs). Always use Array.from(str) or Unicode-aware iterators rather than str.length to measure character counts.

3. Combining Mark Normalization

Most compound references pair a base mathematical operator or symbol with a combining diacritical mark (such as U+0338 Combining Long Solidus Overlay). Modern font rendering engines (HarfBuzz, DirectWrite, CoreText) shape them into a single visual glyph.

Best Practices: Direct UTF-8 Authoring vs Character Escaping

In modern web engineering, when should you write raw Unicode characters directly, and when must you use HTML character references? Following standards-based guidelines prevents source code bloat, improves maintainability, and eliminates security vulnerabilities.

✓

Direct UTF-8 Authoring (Standard Practice)

Every modern HTML document should begin with <meta charset="utf-8">. When UTF-8 is active, you should write native characters directly into your templates:

Smaller Payload: Raw UTF-8 bytes take less bandwidth than 6–8 byte entity strings (e.g. € is 3 bytes in UTF-8 vs 6 bytes for € or 8 bytes for €).
Developer Ergonomics: International text in French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, or German remains naturally readable without mental translation.
Full Unicode Support: Emojis and regional symbols are natively supported.

When Character References ARE Mandatory

Character references are strictly necessary in four specific scenarios:

Syntax Delimiters: Raw &, <, and > in text content, or quotes (", ') inside matching attribute values.
Invisible / Non-Printing Characters: Non-breaking space ( ), zero-width non-joiner (&zwnj;), and zero-width joiner (&zwj;). Writing these raw can lead to accidental deletion or re-formatting by IDE linters, minifiers, and code formatters.
Ambiguous Glyphs: Characters that are visually indistinguishable from ASCII characters (e.g. Greek question mark &quest; / ; vs semicolon ;, or Cyrillic small letter 'a' vs Latin 'a').
ASCII-Restricted Environments: Legacy 7-bit SMTP email transport, legacy SGML tools, or systems unable to process multi-byte UTF-8 streams.

⚠

The Semicolonless Entity Trap & URL Corruption

WHATWG Historical Quirk

The WHATWG HTML Living Standard documents 106 legacy named entities that historically allowed omitting the trailing semicolon (e.g. &amp, &copy, &gt, &lt, &quot, &reg). This exists solely for backwards compatibility with broken 1990s web pages.

Broken URL Query Parameter: <a href="search.php?category=books&copy=true">View Books</a>

Correct Standard Authoring: <a href="search.php?category=books&copy=true">View Books</a>

Rule: Always terminate every character reference with a semicolon (;), and always escape ampersands in HTML attribute URLs as &.

Interactive Web Tool

Batch HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

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✓ 100% Client-Side Privacy ✓ WHATWG Living Standard Compliant ✓ Bi-directional Batch Conversion

Open HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

Standards Compliance & Dataset Provenance

Every character reference, codepoint mapping, and parser behavior documented on this page is directly derived from the official specifications maintained by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the Unicode Consortium.

Authoritative Source WHATWG HTML Living Standard §13.5

Data Snapshot Endpoint html.spec.whatwg.org/entities.json

Total Registered Keys 2,231 entries

Canonical Authoring Forms 2,125 semicolon-terminated references

Legacy Compatibility Aliases 106 semicolonless historical entries

Multi-Codepoint Sequences 93 compound references

Dataset Verification SHA-256 00289ceb64acb3071f854c90e80c72f519bb2c3af5e8801f2e60468637cd911f

Normative Citations:

WHATWG HTML Living Standard §13.5 Named character references — https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/named-characters.html#named-character-references. The definitive authority on valid named character references, parser tokenizer states, and consume character reference algorithms.
W3C Recommendation: HTML 5.2 §8.1.4 Character references — https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/syntax.html#character-references. Details decimal numeric, hexadecimal numeric, and named character reference syntax rules.
The Unicode Consortium: The Unicode Standard, Version 17.0 — Chapter 3 Conformance establishes the validity of Unicode scalar values (U+0000..U+D7FF and U+E000..U+10FFFF) and surrogate boundary prohibitions.

Common HTML Entities & Developer Quick Reference

Syntax-Sensitive Characters & Context-Aware Escaping

Context-Dependent Escaping Requirements

HTML Text Content

Double-Quoted Attributes

Single-Quoted Attributes

Unquoted Attributes (Dangerous)

HTML Character References Directory

Named References vs Numeric Codes (Decimal & Hex)

Named Character References

Decimal Numeric References

Hexadecimal Numeric References

Multi-Codepoint Entity Sequences (The 93 Compound References)

How HTML Parsers Process Compound Sequences

Critical Engineering Implications:

Best Practices: Direct UTF-8 Authoring vs Character Escaping

Direct UTF-8 Authoring (Standard Practice)

When Character References ARE Mandatory

The Semicolonless Entity Trap & URL Corruption

Batch HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

Related Character Encodings & Standards

UTF-8 Character Encoding

UTF-16 Character Encoding

UTF-32 Character Encoding

URL Percent-Encoding

Unicode Database & Codepoints

HTML Entity Encoder Tool

Standards Compliance & Dataset Provenance

Normative Citations: