HTML Entities — Complete Reference and Usage Guide

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have reserved meanings in HTML or characters that cannot be typed on a standard keyboard.

What Are HTML Entities?

HTML entities start with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;). They represent characters that would otherwise be interpreted as HTML markup:

When to Use HTML Entities

1. Reserved Characters

<!-- Wrong -->

<!-- Right --> <p>5 &lt; 10 and 10 &gt; 5</p> `

2. Special Symbols

<p>Price: &euro;50 or &pound;40</p>
<p>Copyright &copy; 2025</p>

3. Invisible Characters

<p>100&nbsp;km/h</p>

Numeric Entities

You can also use numeric codes:

Common Mistakes

1. Forgetting the semicolon — &lt instead of <
2. Double encoding — < instead of <
3. Encoding in attributes — title="5 < 10" is correct
4. Not encoding in code blocks — Inside <pre> and <code>, entities are still interpreted

Try It Online

Use our free HTML entities encoder/decoder to encode or decode HTML entities instantly — no installation needed.