Named Character Entity References

According to Section 24 of the HTML 4.01 Spec, “A character entity reference is an SGML construct that references a character of the document character set.” In other words, if you are writing a web page and want to use a character that you can’t easily type, or one of a set of few characters (e.g. “<”, “>”, “&”) that you should not enter because they are used in the HTML language, you can use one of these references to have that character displayed properly on your web page (so long as the font on the computer of whoever is viewing your page supports it).

The general form is “&reference;”, where reference is the (usually) shortened name of the character you want to display. For example, to display an ampersand, you type “&” --- amp is the shortened name.

Alternately, you may use the numeric reference to specify any of these characters: “&#numeric;”, where numeric is the numeric reference shown for the desired character. For example, to display an ampersand, you type “&".

HTML 4.01 provides three broad categories of character entity references:

ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters --- standard characters and symbols used in most Western languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, etc.). According to the spec, “the set of Latin-1 entities has been extended by this specification to cover the whole right part of ISO-8859-1 (all code positions with the high-order bit set).”
Symbols, mathematical symbols, and Greek letters --- according to the spec, “these characters may be represented by glyphs in the Adobe font ‘Symbol’.”
Markup-significant and internationalization characters (e.g., for bidirectional text).

According to Section A2 of the XHTML spec, “The XHTML entity sets are the same as for HTML 4, but have been modified to be valid XML 1.0 entity declarations.”

NOTE: To see these in a different font, append "?font=Font Name" to the URL for this page and reload it. For example, enter

    http://awcolley.com/WebsiteDev/HTMLNamedChar?font=Times New Roman

to see these characters displayed using the Times New Roman font.

NOTE: The “Displayed” column shows the symbol slightly larger than normal, to make it a little easier to see here. Also, it is displayed with a yellow background, so you can see how wide it is (especially for spaces).

There are two additional pages displaying these named entities in different order:

ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) Characters

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
nbsp		no-break / non-breaking space	160	U+00A0
iexcl	¡	inverted exclamation mark	161	U+00A1
cent	¢	cent sign	162	U+00A2
pound	£	pound sign	163	U+00A3
curren	¤	currency sign	164	U+00A4
yen	¥	yen / yuan sign	165	U+00A5
brvbar	¦	broken bar / vertical bar	166	U+00A6
sect	§	section sign	167	U+00A7
uml	¨	diaeresis / spacing diaeresis	168	U+00A8
copy	©	copyright sign	169	U+00A9
ordf	ª	feminine ordinal indicator	170	U+00AA
laquo	«	left double angle quotation mark / guillemet	171	U+00AB
not	¬	not sign	172	U+00AC
shy		soft / discretionary hyphen	173	U+00AD
reg	®	registered sign / trade mark sign	174	U+00AE
macr	¯	macron /spacing macron /overline / APL overbar	175	U+00AF
deg	°	degree sign	176	U+00B0
plusmn	±	plus-minus / plus-or-minus sign	177	U+00B1
sup2	²	superscript two / squared	178	U+00B2
sup3	³	superscript three / cubed	179	U+00B3
acute	´	acute accent / spacing acute	180	U+00B4
micro	µ	micro sign	181	U+00B5
para	¶	pilcrow / paragraph sign	182	U+00B6
middot	·	middle dot / Georgian comma / Greek middle dot	183	U+00B7
cedil	¸	cedilla / spacing cedilla	184	U+00B8
sup1	¹	superscript one	185	U+00B9
ordm	º	masculine ordinal indicator	186	U+00BA
raquo	»	right double angle quotation mark / guillemet	187	U+00BB
frac14	¼	(vulgar) fraction one quarter	188	U+00BC
frac12	½	(vulgar) fraction one half	189	U+00BD
frac34	¾	(vulgar) fraction three quarters	190	U+00BE
iquest	¿	inverted / turned question mark	191	U+00BF
Agrave	À	latin capital letter A with grave	192	U+00C0
Aacute	Á	latin capital letter A with acute	193	U+00C1
Acirc	Â	latin capital letter A with circumflex	194	U+00C2
Atilde	Ã	latin capital letter A with tilde	195	U+00C3
Auml	Ä	latin capital letter A with diaeresis	196	U+00C4
Aring	Å	latin capital letter A with ring above	197	U+00C5
AElig	Æ	latin capital letter / ligature AE	198	U+00C6
Ccedil	Ç	latin capital letter C with cedilla	199	U+00C7
Egrave	È	latin capital letter E with grave	200	U+00C8
Eacute	É	latin capital letter E with acute	201	U+00C9
Ecirc	Ê	latin capital letter E with circumflex	202	U+00CA
Euml	Ë	latin capital letter E with diaeresis	203	U+00CB
Igrave	Ì	latin capital letter I with grave	204	U+00CC
Iacute	Í	latin capital letter I with acute	205	U+00CD
Icirc	Î	latin capital letter I with circumflex	206	U+00CE
Iuml	Ï	latin capital letter I with diaeresis	207	U+00CF
ETH	Ð	latin capital letter ETH	208	U+00D0
Ntilde	Ñ	latin capital letter N with tilde	209	U+00D1
Ograve	Ò	latin capital letter O with grave	210	U+00D2
Oacute	Ó	latin capital letter O with acute	211	U+00D3
Ocirc	Ô	latin capital letter O with circumflex	212	U+00D4
Otilde	Õ	latin capital letter O with tilde	213	U+00D5
Ouml	Ö	latin capital letter O with diaeresis	214	U+00D6
times	×	multiplication sign	215	U+00D7
Oslash	Ø	latin capital letter O with stroke / slash	216	U+00D8
Ugrave	Ù	latin capital letter U with grave	217	U+00D9
Uacute	Ú	latin capital letter U with acute	218	U+00DA
Ucirc	Û	latin capital letter U with circumflex	219	U+00DB
Uuml	Ü	latin capital letter U with diaeresis	220	U+00DC
Yacute	Ý	latin capital letter Y with acute	221	U+00DD
THORN	Þ	latin capital letter THORN	222	U+00DE
szlig	ß	latin small letter sharp s / ess-zed	223	U+00DF
agrave	à	latin small letter a with grave	224	U+00E0
aacute	á	latin small letter a with acute	225	U+00E1
acirc	â	latin small letter a with circumflex	226	U+00E2
atilde	ã	latin small letter a with tilde	227	U+00E3
auml	ä	latin small letter a with diaeresis	228	U+00E4
aring	å	latin small letter a with ring above	229	U+00E5
aelig	æ	latin small letter / ligature ae	230	U+00E6
ccedil	ç	latin small letter c with cedilla	231	U+00E7
egrave	è	latin small letter e with grave	232	U+00E8
eacute	é	latin small letter e with acute	233	U+00E9
ecirc	ê	latin small letter e with circumflex	234	U+00EA
euml	ë	latin small letter e with diaeresis	235	U+00EB
igrave	ì	latin small letter i with grave	236	U+00EC
iacute	í	latin small letter i with acute	237	U+00ED
icirc	î	latin small letter i with circumflex	238	U+00EE
iuml	ï	latin small letter i with diaeresis	239	U+00EF
eth	ð	latin small letter eth	240	U+00F0
ntilde	ñ	latin small letter n with tilde	241	U+00F1
ograve	ò	latin small letter o with grave	242	U+00F2
oacute	ó	latin small letter o with acute	243	U+00F3
ocirc	ô	latin small letter o with circumflex	244	U+00F4
otilde	õ	latin small letter o with tilde	245	U+00F5
ouml	ö	latin small letter o with diaeresis	246	U+00F6
divide	÷	division sign	247	U+00F7
oslash	ø	latin small letter o with stroke / slash	248	U+00F8
ugrave	ù	latin small letter u with grave	249	U+00F9
uacute	ú	latin small letter u with acute	250	U+00FA
ucirc	û	latin small letter u with circumflex	251	U+00FB
uuml	ü	latin small letter u with diaeresis	252	U+00FC
yacute	ý	latin small letter y with acute	253	U+00FD
thorn	þ	latin small letter thorn	254	U+00FE
yuml	ÿ	latin small letter y with diaeresis	255	U+00FF

Symbols, Mathematical Symbols, and Greek Letters

Latin Extended-B

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
fnof	ƒ	latin small f with hook / function / florin	402	U+0192

Greek

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
Alpha	Α	greek capital letter alpha	913	U+0391
Beta	Β	greek capital letter beta	914	U+0392
Gamma	Γ	greek capital letter gamma	915	U+0393
Delta	Δ	greek capital letter delta	916	U+0394
Epsilon	Ε	greek capital letter epsilon	917	U+0395
Zeta	Ζ	greek capital letter zeta	918	U+0396
Eta	Η	greek capital letter eta	919	U+0397
Theta	Θ	greek capital letter theta	920	U+0398
Iota	Ι	greek capital letter iota	921	U+0399
Kappa	Κ	greek capital letter kappa	922	U+039A
Lambda	Λ	greek capital letter lambda	923	U+039B
Mu	Μ	greek capital letter mu	924	U+039C
Nu	Ν	greek capital letter nu	925	U+039D
Xi	Ξ	greek capital letter xi	926	U+039E
Omicron	Ο	greek capital letter omicron	927	U+039F
Pi	Π	greek capital letter pi	928	U+03A0
Rho	Ρ	greek capital letter rho	929	U+03A1
Sigma	Σ	greek capital letter sigma¹	931	U+03A3
Tau	Τ	greek capital letter tau	932	U+03A4
Upsilon	Υ	greek capital letter upsilon	933	U+03A5
Phi	Φ	greek capital letter phi	934	U+03A6
Chi	Χ	greek capital letter chi	935	U+03A7
Psi	Ψ	greek capital letter psi	936	U+03A8
Omega	Ω	greek capital letter omega	937	U+03A9
alpha	α	greek small letter alpha	945	U+03B1
beta	β	greek small letter beta	946	U+03B2
gamma	γ	greek small letter gamma	947	U+03B3
delta	δ	greek small letter delta	948	U+03B4
epsilon	ε	greek small letter epsilon	949	U+03B5
zeta	ζ	greek small letter zeta	950	U+03B6
eta	η	greek small letter eta	951	U+03B7
theta	θ	greek small letter theta	952	U+03B8
iota	ι	greek small letter iota	953	U+03B9
kappa	κ	greek small letter kappa	954	U+03BA
lambda	λ	greek small letter lambda	955	U+03BB
mu	μ	greek small letter mu	956	U+03BC
nu	ν	greek small letter nu	957	U+03BD
xi	ξ	greek small letter xi	958	U+03BE
omicron	ο	greek small letter omicron	959	U+03BF
pi	π	greek small letter pi	960	U+03C0
rho	ρ	greek small letter rho	961	U+03C1
sigmaf	ς	greek small letter final sigma	962	U+03C2
sigma	σ	greek small letter sigma	963	U+03C3
tau	τ	greek small letter tau	964	U+03C4
upsilon	υ	greek small letter upsilon	965	U+03C5
phi	φ	greek small letter phi	966	U+03C6
chi	χ	greek small letter chi	967	U+03C7
psi	ψ	greek small letter psi	968	U+03C8
omega	ω	greek small letter omega	969	U+03C9
thetasym	ϑ	greek small letter theta symbol	977	U+03D1
upsih	ϒ	greek upsilon with hook symbol	978	U+03D2
piv	ϖ	greek pi symbol	982	U+03D6

¹ there is no Sigmaf and no U+03A2 character either

General Punctuation

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
bull	•	bullet / black small circle¹	8226	U+2022
hellip	…	horizontal ellipsis / three dot leader	8230	U+2026
prime	′	prime / minutes / feet	8242	U+2032
Prime	″	double prime / seconds / inches	8243	U+2033
oline	‾	overline / spacing overscore	8254	U+203E
frasl	⁄	fraction slash	8260	U+2044

¹ bull is NOT the same as bullet operator, U+2219

Letterlike Symbols

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
weierp	℘	script capital P / power set / Weierstrass p	8472	U+2118
image	ℑ	blackletter capital I / imaginary part	8465	U+2111
real	ℜ	blackletter capital R / real part symbol	8476	U+211C
trade	™	trade mark sign	8482	U+2122
alefsym	ℵ	alef symbol / first transfinite cardinal¹	8501	U+2135

¹ alefsym is NOT the same as hebrew letter alef, U+05D0, although the same glyph could be used to depict both characters

Arrows

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
larr	←	leftwards arrow	8592	U+2190
uarr	↑	upwards arrow	8593	U+2191
rarr	→	rightwards arrow	8594	U+2192
darr	↓	downwards arrow	8595	U+2193
harr	↔	left right arrow	8596	U+2194
crarr	↵	left corner down arrow / carriage return	8629	U+21B5
lArr	⇐	leftwards double arrow¹	8656	U+21D0
uArr	⇑	upwards double arrow	8657	U+21D1
rArr	⇒	rightwards double arrow²	8658	U+21D2
dArr	⇓	downwards double arrow	8659	U+21D3
hArr	⇔	left right double arrow	8660	U+21D4

¹ ISO 10646 does not say that lArr is the same as the “is implied by” arrow but also does not have any other character for that function.

² ISO 10646 does not say that rArr is the same as the “implies” character but does not have another character with this function.

Mathematical Operators

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
forall	∀	for all	8704	U+2200
part	∂	partial differential	8706	U+2202
exist	∃	there exists	8707	U+2203
empty	∅	empty set / null set / diameter	8709	U+2205
nabla	∇	nabla / backward difference	8711	U+2207
isin	∈	element of	8712	U+2208
notin	∉	not an element of	8713	U+2209
ni	∋	contains as member	8715	U+220B
prod	∏	n-ary product / product sign¹	8719	U+220F
sum	∑	n-ary sumation²	8721	U+2211
minus	−	minus sign	8722	U+2212
lowast	∗	asterisk operator	8727	U+2217
radic	√	square root / radical sign	8730	U+221A
prop	∝	proportional to	8733	U+221D
infin	∞	infinity	8734	U+221E
ang	∠	angle	8736	U+2220
and	∧	logical and / wedge	8743	U+2227
or	∨	logical or / vee	8744	U+2228
cap	∩	intersection / cap	8745	U+2229
cup	∪	union / cup	8746	U+222A
int	∫	integral	8747	U+222B
there4	∴	therefore	8756	U+2234
sim	∼	tilde operator / varies with / similar to³	8764	U+223C
cong	≅	approximately equal to	8773	U+2245
asymp	≈	almost equal to / asymptotic to	8776	U+2248
ne	≠	not equal to	8800	U+2260
equiv	≡	identical to	8801	U+2261
le	≤	less-than or equal to	8804	U+2264
ge	≥	greater-than or equal to	8805	U+2265
sub	⊂	subset of	8834	U+2282
sup	⊃	superset of⁴	8835	U+2283
nsub	⊄	not a subset of	8836	U+2284
sube	⊆	subset of or equal to	8838	U+2286
supe	⊇	superset of or equal to	8839	U+2287
oplus	⊕	circled plus / direct sum	8853	U+2295
otimes	⊗	circled times / vector product	8855	U+2297
perp	⊥	up tack / orthogonal to / perpendicular	8869	U+22A5
sdot	⋅	dot operator⁵	8901	U+22C5

¹ prod is NOT the same character as U+03A0 “greek capital letter pi” though the same glyph might be used for both

² sum is NOT the same character as U+03A3 “greek capital letter sigma” though the same glyph might be used for both

³ sim is NOT the same character as the tilde U+007E, although the same glyph might be used to represent both

⁴ note that nsup, “not a superset of” U+2283, is not covered by the Symbol font encoding and is not included

⁵ sdot is NOT the same character as U+00B7 “middle dot”

Miscellaneous Technical

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
lceil	⌈	left ceiling / apl upstile	8968	U+2308
rceil	⌉	right ceiling	8969	U+2309
lfloor	⌊	left floor / apl downstile	8970	U+230A
rfloor	⌋	right floor	8971	U+230B
lang	〈	left-pointing angle bracket¹	9001	U+2329
rang	〉	right-pointing angle bracket²	9002	U+232A

¹ lang is NOT the same character as U+003C “less than” or U+2039 “single left-pointing angle quotation mark”

² rang is NOT the same character as U+003E “greater than” or U+203A “single right-pointing angle quotation mark”

Geometric Shapes

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
loz	◊	lozenge	9674	U+25CA

Miscellaneous Symbols

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
spades	♠	black spade suit	9824	U+2660
clubs	♣	black club suit / shamrock	9827	U+2663
hearts	♥	black heart suit / valentine	9829	U+2665
diams	♦	black diamond suit	9830	U+2666

Note: “black” here seems to mean filled as opposed to hollow

Markup-significant and Internationalization Characters

C0 Controls and Basic Latin

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
quot	"	quotation mark	34	U+0022
amp	&	ampersand	38	U+0026
lt	<	less-than sign	60	U+003C
gt	>	greater-than sign	62	U+003E

Latin Extended-A

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
OElig	Œ	latin capital ligature OE	338	U+0152
oelig	œ	latin small ligature¹ oe	339	U+0153
Scaron	Š	latin capital letter S with caron	352	U+0160
scaron	š	latin small letter s with caron	353	U+0161
Yuml	Ÿ	latin capital letter Y with diaeresis	376	U+0178

¹ligature is a misnomer, this is a separate character in some languages

Spacing Modifier Letters

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
circ	ˆ	modifier letter circumflex accent	710	U+02C6
tilde	˜	small tilde	732	U+02DC

General Punctuation

Name	Sample	Description	Numeric Reference	ISO Number
ensp		en space	8194	U+2002
emsp		em space	8195	U+2003
thinsp		thin space	8201	U+2009
zwnj	‌	zero width non-joiner	8204	U+200C
zwj	‍	zero width joiner	8205	U+200D
lrm	‎	left-to-right mark	8206	U+200E
rlm	‏	right-to-left mark	8207	U+200F
ndash	–	en dash	8211	U+2013
mdash	—	em dash	8212	U+2014
lsquo	‘	left single quotation mark	8216	U+2018
rsquo	’	right single quotation mark	8217	U+2019
sbquo	‚	single low-9 quotation mark	8218	U+201A
ldquo	“	left double quotation mark	8220	U+201C
rdquo	”	right double quotation mark	8221	U+201D
bdquo	„	double low-9 quotation mark	8222	U+201E
dagger	†	dagger	8224	U+2020
Dagger	‡	double dagger	8225	U+2021
permil	‰	per mille sign	8240	U+2030
lsaquo	‹	single left-pointing angle quotation mark¹	8249	U+2039
rsaquo	›	single right-pointing angle quotation mark²	8250	U+203A
euro	€	euro sign	8364	U+20AC

¹ lsaquo is proposed but not yet ISO standardized

² rsaquo is proposed but not yet ISO standardized