HTML - Special Entity Codes

This Web page contains lists of common special entity codes needed in HTML to generate special characters such as ñ, ¢, ÷ and other characters. Full instructions are in the "Using the Codes" section followed by lists organized by character type. Information on

NOTE: If you are composing Web pages in an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage or Netscape Composer the programs may generate the characters based on what is typed in (check the HTML to be sure). 

  1. Letters with Accents - (e.g. ó, ò, ñ)
  2. Other Foreign Characters - (e.g. ç, ¿, ß)
  3. Currency Symbols - (e.g. ¢, £, ¥)
  4. Math Symbols - (e.g. ±, °, ÷)
  5. Other Punctuation - (e.g. &, ©, §, smart quotes )
  6. Using the Codes
  7. Uniciode Numeric Codes - New Page
  8. Links to Other References

Caution on Smart Quotes and Long Dashes

“Smart (curly) quotes” (vs. "plain (straight) quotes") and long dashes such as em dash (—) and en dash (–) are actually considered "special characters" in HTML. If you are using a Word file with these symbols, you may need to remove them or replace them with entity characters. Plain quotes and short dashes are always OK.

 

Letters with Accents

This list is organized by Accent type. If a value is missing in the chart, then see the Expanded Unicode Accents code page.

To determine the appropriate numeric code, match the accent with the vowel. The general template for each accent is in the left column in blue. For instance&Vcirc; means that all the entity codes for vowels with circumflex accents contain "circ" as part of the code. NOTE: Numbers in parentheses refer to the numeric position of the character in the Latin-1 encoding scheme.

Example 1: To input the lower case circumflex â in HTML, type in â
Example 2: To input the capital circumflex  in HTML, type in â
Exampe 3: To input lower case circumflex ô in HTML, type in ô.

Accent A E I O U Y
Grave
&Vgrave;

(Cap)		 À
À
(192) 		È
È
(200) 		Ì
Ì
(204) 		Ò
Ò
(210) 		Ù
Ù
(217)
Grave (Lower) à
à
(224) 		è
è
(232) 		ì
ì
(236) 		ò
ò
(242)		 ù
ù
(249) 		 
Acute
&Vacute;

(Cap)		 Á
Á
(193)		 É
É
(201) 		Í
Í
(205) 		Ó
Ó
(211) 		Ú
Ú
(218) 		Ý
Ý
(221)
Acute (Lower) á
á
(225)		 é
é
(233)		 í
í
(237)		 ó
ó
(243)		 ú
ú
(250)		 ý
ý
(253)
Circumflex
&Vcirc;
(Cap)		 Â
Â
(194)		 Ê
Ê
(202)		 Î
Î
(206)		 Ô
Ô
(212)		 Û
Û
(219)		  
Circumflex (Lower) â
â
(226)		 ê
ê
(234)		 î
î
(238)		 ô
ô
(244)		 û
û
(251)		  
Tilde
&Vtilde;
(Cap)		 Ã
Ã
(195)		 -- Ñ
Ñ
(209)		 Õ
Õ
(213)		 --  
Tilde (Lower) ã
ã
(227)		 -- ñ
ñ
(241)		 õ
õ
(245)		 --  
Umlaut
&Vuml;
(Cap)		 Ä
Ä
(196)		 Ë
Ë
(203)		 Ï
Ï
(207)		 Ö
Ö
(214)		 Ü
Ü
(220)		 Ÿ1
Ÿ
(159)
Umlaut (Lower) ä
ä
(228)		 ë
ë
(235)		 ï
ï
(239)		 ö
ö
(246)		 ü
ü
(252)		 ÿ
ÿ
(255)

1: The code Ÿ is not supported in older browsers such as Netscape 4.7, but the numeric version (Ÿ) works.

If you are having problems inputting these codes, please review the instructions for using the codes on top of this Web page.

Top of Page

Other Foreign Characters

This page includes common Western European characters only. Refer to the individual By Language pages for further codes.

Common Codes

NOTES: Numbers in parentheses refer to the numeric position of the character in the Latin-1 encoding scheme.

Example 1: To generate the upside-down question mark ¿,type ¿   into the HTML code.
Example 2: To generate French oe ligature œ, type œ into the HTML code.

SYMBOL NAME CODE NOTES
¡ Upside-down exclamation point. ¡  (161)  
¿ Upside-down question mark. ¿ (191)  
Ç,ç French C cedille (caps/lowercase) Ç (199)
ç (231)		  
Œ,œ French O-E ligature (caps/lowercase) Œ (140)
œ (156)

In older browsers, use (Œ) for Capital O-E ligature and (œ) for lowercase

ß German double S ß (223)  
Ø,ø O slash (caps/lowercase) Ø (216)
ø (248) 		 
Å,å A ring, Angstrom sign (caps/lowercase) Å (197)
å (229)		  
Æ,æ A-E ligature (caps/lowercase) Æ (198)
æ (230) 		 
Þ,þ Old English thorn (caps/lowercase) Þ (222)
þ (254) 		 
Ð,ð Old English eth (caps/lowercase) Р(208)
ð (240)		  
« » European/Spanish style double angle quote mark. « (171)
» (187) 		 

New Codes

These codes do not work in old browsers like Netscape 4.7, but are generally usable in new browsers.

SYMBOL NAME CODE
‹ › European/Spanish style single angle quote mark. ‹ 
› 
„ European bottom quote „
‚ European single bottom quote ‚ 

 

Top of Page

Currency Symbols

NOTE: Numbers in parentheses refer to the numeric position of the character in the Latin-1 encoding scheme.

Example: To generate the cent sign ¢,type ¢ into the HTML code.

SYMBOL NAME CODE
¢ cent sign ¢ (162)
£ British Pound £ (163)
¥ Japanese Yen ¥ (165)
€ Euro Symbol € (--)
¤ Generic currency symbol ¤ (164)
ƒ Dutch Florin Symbol (may not work in older browsers) ƒ (--)

If you are having problems inputting these codes, please review the instructions for using the codes on top of this Web page.

Top of Page

 

Math Symbols

Common Codes

NOTE: Numbers in parentheses refer to the numeric position of the character in the Latin-1 encoding scheme.

Example: To generate the division sign ÷, type ÷ or ÷ into the HTML code.

SYMBOL NAME CODE
> Greater than > (62)
< Less than &lt; (60)
÷ Division symbol &divide; (247)
° Degree symbol &deg; (176)
¬ Not symbol &not; (172)
± Plus/minus symbol &plusmn; (177)
µ Micro &micro; (181)

If you are having problems inputting these codes, please review the instructions for using the codes on top of this Web page.

New Codes

These codes do not work in old browsers like Netscape 4.7, but are generally usable in new browsers.

Below are just a few available codes.

Common New Entity Codes for Math
SYMBOL NAME CODE
∴ therefore triangle &there4;
≠ not equals &ne;
≥ greater than or equals to &ge;
≤ less than or equals to &le;
≈ approximately &asymp;
√ square root radical &radic;
∞ infinity &infin;
∫ integral sign &int;
∂ partial derivative &part;
′ Single prime &prime;
″ Double prime &Prime;
∑ Sigma Sum Sign &sum;
∏ Pi Product Sign &prod;
‰ Per mil (1/1000th) &permil;
≡ equivalent to (three lines) &equiv;

 

Top of Page

Other Punctuation

Caution on Smart Quotes and Long Dashes

“Smart (curly) quotes” (vs. "plain (straight) quotes") and long dashes such as em dash (—) and en dash (–) are actually considered "special characters" in HTML. If you are using a Word file with these symbols, you may need to remove them or replace them with entity characters.

Common Codes

Example 1: To generate the and symbol & (&amp;) type in &amp;.
Example 2: To generate the string &amp; in HTML, type &amp;amp;.

SYMBOL NAME CODE
(blank space) Inserts a non-breaking blank space (en space) &nbsp; (32)
& Ampersand &amp; (38)
“ Opening Double Quotes &ldquo; (or &#147 in older browsers)
” Closing Double Quotes &rdquo; (or &#148 in older browsers)
‘ Opening Single Quote Mark &lsquo; (or &#145 in older browsers)
’ Closing Single Quote Mark &rsquo; (or &#146 in older browsers)
® Registered symbol &reg; (174)
© Copyright symbol &copy; (169)
® Registered symbol &reg; (174)
™ Trademark symbol &trade; (or &#153; in older browsers)
Paragraph symbol &para; (182)
• Big List Dot &bull; (or &#149 in older browsers)
· Medium List Dot &middot; (or &#183 in older browsers)
§ Section Symbol &sect; (167)
– en-dash &ndash; (or &#150; in older browsers)
— em-dash &mdash; (or &#151; in older browsers)

New Codes

These codes do not work in old browsers like Netscape 4.7, but are generally usable in new browsers.

SYMBOL NAME CODE
† dagger (cross) &dagger;
‡ double dagger &Dagger;
◊ open diamond, lozonge &loz;
↑ up arrow &uarr;
↓ down arrow &darr;
← left arrow &larr;
→ right arrow &rarr;
↔ double headed arrow &harr;

 

If you are having problems inputting these codes, please review the instructions for using the codes on top of this Web page.

Top of Page

Using the Codes

To input non-English into an Web page, HTML employs a series of entity codes enclosed with an & on the left side and a ; (semi-colon) on the right.

HTML SPECIAL CHARACTER TEMPLATE      &(code);

For example, the code for ç is "ccedil". To generate French ç in HTML, type the code &ccedil; into your HTML document as in:

HTML - fran&cecedil;ais
Result - français

Here's another example using &cent; for ¢.

HTML - It cost 5&cent;.
Result - It cost 5¢.

Some characters like œ (#156) are known by a number, not an entity code. For these characters the template is:

HTML CHARACTER NUMBER TEMPLATE      &#(number);

For example to input sœur, the French word for sister you use the following code:

HTML - s&#156;ur 'sister'
Result - sœur 'sister'

Troubleshooting the Encoding

If one of the numeric codes (e.g. &#156; for œ) fails to display, try including the following meta tags in the header (between the <head></head>) tags.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=win 1252">

This will force the browser to switch to the correct encoding system.

Top of Page

 

Links to External Reference Pages

HTML Entity Codes