HTML Entities Guide
A complete reference for HTML character entities. Encode and decode special characters with our free HTML Entities Encoder/Decoder.
Common HTML Entities
| Character | Named Entity | Numeric Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | & | & | Ampersand |
| < | < | < | Less than |
| > | > | > | Greater than |
| " | " | " | Double quote |
| ' | ' | ' | Single quote / apostrophe |
| |   | Non-breaking space | |
| © | © | © | Copyright |
| ® | ® | ® | Registered trademark |
| ™ | ™ | ™ | Trademark |
| € | € | € | Euro currency |
| £ | £ | £ | Pound currency |
| ¥ | ¥ | ¥ | Yen currency |
Why HTML Entity Encoding Matters
HTML entity encoding is essential for both correctness and security. Without encoding, special characters like < and > would be interpreted as HTML tags and break your page layout. More importantly, failing to encode user-generated content is one of the most common causes of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities, where attackers inject malicious scripts into web pages.
Named vs Numeric Entities
Named entities (like &) are easier to read and remember but limited to commonly used characters. Numeric entities (like & or &) can represent any Unicode character, making them more versatile. Use named entities for standard HTML characters, and numeric entities for symbols, special punctuation, and characters from non-Latin scripts.