HTML Entities Cheat Sheet

You type <script> in your blog post content and the browser tries to execute it. You need <script> instead. Or you’re adding a copyright symbol and can’t remember if it’s ©, ©, or ©. Or you need the right arrow (→) in a nav breadcrumb and Google gives you 8 different arrow entities without showing which one is which. You need a searchable reference with named, decimal, and hex codes all in one place.

Why This Cheat Sheet (Not MDN or W3Schools)

MDN’s HTML entity reference is exhaustive (2,000+ entities) but overwhelming when you just need the 20 you use regularly. W3Schools lists entities but doesn’t show the actual rendered character next to the code. This cheat sheet covers 200+ commonly used entities — currency, math, arrows, Greek letters, typography — with the character, named entity, decimal code, and hex code side by side. Searchable and filterable in your browser; no data is sent anywhere.

What Are HTML Entities?

An HTML entity is a special code that tells the browser to display a character that either has a special meaning in HTML or cannot easily be typed on a standard keyboard. Every entity starts with an ampersand (&) and ends with a semicolon (;).

There are three ways to reference the same character:

All three forms are equivalent. The browser renders &, &, and & identically as the & character.

The 5 Reserved HTML Characters

These five characters have special meaning in HTML and must be escaped whenever they appear in text content or attribute values:

Rule of thumb: If your editor’s HTML highlighter turns your text orange or red, you probably need to escape it.

Non-Breaking Space ( )

The non-breaking space ( ,  ) looks identical to a regular space but prevents the browser from wrapping the line at that position. Use it to:

• Keep a number and its unit together: 10 kg, 3:00 PM
• Prevent widows (lone words at the end of a paragraph)
• Add precise horizontal spacing without CSS

<!-- Without &nbsp;: "10" and "kg" can end up on separate lines -->
10 kg

<!-- With &nbsp;: always stays on one line -->
10&nbsp;kg

Typography Essentials

Em Dash vs En Dash vs Hyphen

Quotation Marks

Straight quotes (" ') are ASCII and fine in code. For typographically correct prose, use curly quotes:

Copyright, Trademark, Registered

&copy; 2026 Acme Corp.          <!-- © 2026 Acme Corp. -->
Widget Pro&trade;               <!-- Widget Pro™ -->
Coca-Cola&reg;                  <!-- Coca-Cola® -->

Currency Symbols

If your HTML file is saved as UTF-8 (which is the modern standard), you can paste currency symbols directly without using entities. Entities are useful when you need to guarantee the character survives encoding changes or when working in a limited character set.

Mathematical Operators

Common math operators used in documentation, formulas, and scientific content:

5 &times; 3 = 15          <!-- 5 × 3 = 15 -->
10 &divide; 2 = 5          <!-- 10 ÷ 2 = 5 -->
&plusmn;0.5                <!-- ±0.5 -->
x &le; 10                  <!-- x ≤ 10 -->
x &ge; 0                   <!-- x ≥ 0 -->
x &ne; 0                   <!-- x ≠ 0 -->
&infin;                    <!-- ∞ -->
&radic;16 = 4              <!-- √16 = 4 -->

Greek Letters

Greek letters appear frequently in mathematics, science, and engineering. All 24 lowercase and 24 uppercase Greek letters have named HTML entities:

Arrows

HTML provides named entities for directional arrows:

Named Entities vs. Direct UTF-8 Characters

Modern HTML documents should declare <meta charset="UTF-8">. With UTF-8 encoding, you can paste most Unicode characters directly — no entity required. For example, © 2026 and © 2026 are identical.

When to prefer entities over direct characters:

1. The 5 reserved characters (< > & " ') — always escape these
2. Invisible or ambiguous characters —  , ­ (soft hyphen) are clearer as entities
3. Limited-charset environments — plain-text emails, legacy systems, or tools that mangle non-ASCII
4. Code readability — — is unambiguous; a lone — can look like a hyphen

When UTF-8 is fine:

• Emoji, currency symbols, mathematical operators — paste directly
• Modern web browsers handle all valid Unicode points

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use HTML entities in CSS content property?

Yes. In CSS, use the Unicode escape with a backslash: content: "\00A9" for ©. CSS does not support HTML entity names like ©.

Do HTML entities work in XML and SVG?

Named HTML entities work in HTML documents. In XML and SVG (which are stricter), only the five predefined XML entities are guaranteed: &, <, >, ", '. Use numeric references (©) for other characters in XML/SVG.

Why does my   show as literal text?

Make sure the surrounding document is parsed as HTML (not plain text). Check that the Content-Type header is text/html and the file has a proper <!DOCTYPE html> declaration.

Is ' valid HTML?

' is defined in HTML5 and XML but was not part of HTML 4. For maximum compatibility in legacy contexts, use ' instead. In modern HTML5, both work.

What is the soft hyphen (­)?

The soft hyphen (­, ­) is an invisible hint to the browser: “if you need to break this word across lines, you may break it here and show a hyphen.” It only appears when a line break actually occurs. Use it in long compound words like hand­crafted.