List of XML and HTML character entity references

In SGMLHTML and XML documents, the logical constructs known as character data and attribute values consist of sequences of characters, in which each character can manifest directly (representing itself), or can be represented by a series of characters called a character reference, of which there are two types: a numeric character reference and a character entity reference. This article lists the character entity references that are valid in HTML and XML documents.

Character reference overview

numeric character reference refers to a character by its Universal Character Set/Unicode code point, and uses the format

&#nnnn;

or

&#xhhhh;

where nnnn is the code point in decimal form, and hhhh is the code point in hexadecimal form. The x must be lowercase in XML documents. The nnnn or hhhh may be any number of digits and may include leading zeros. The hhhh may mix uppercase and lowercase, though uppercase is the usual style.

In contrast, a character entity reference refers to a character by the name of an entity which has the desired character as its replacement text. The entity must either be predefined (built-in to the markup language) or explicitly declared in a Document Type Definition (DTD). The format is the same as for any entity reference:

&name;

where name is the name of the entity. The semicolon is required.

Predefined entities in XML

The XML specification does not use the term “character entity” or “character entity reference”. The XML specification defines five “predefined entities” representing special characters, and requires that all XML processors honor them. The entities can be explicitly declared in a DTD, as well, but if this is done, the replacement text must be the same as the built-in definitions. XML also allows other named entities of any size to be defined on a per-document basis.

The table below lists the five XML predefined entities. The “Name” column mentions the entity’s name. The “Character” column shows the character, if it is renderable. In order to render the character, the format &name; is used; for example, & renders as &. The “Unicode code point” column cites the character via standard UCS/Unicode “U+” notation, which shows the character’s code point in hexadecimal. The decimal equivalent of the code point is then shown in parentheses. The “Standard” column indicates the first version of XML that includes the entity. The “Description” column cites the character via its canonical UCS/Unicode name, in English.

Name Character Unicode code point (decimal) Standard Description
quot U+0022 (34) XML 1.0 (double) quotation mark
amp & U+0026 (38) XML 1.0 ampersand
apos U+0027 (39) XML 1.0 apostrophe (= apostrophe-quote)
lt < U+003C (60) XML 1.0 less-than sign
gt > U+003E (62) XML 1.0 greater-than sign

Character entity references in HTML

The HTML 4 DTDs define 252 named entities, references to which act as mnemonic aliases for certain Unicode characters. The HTML 4 specification requires the use of the standard DTDs and does not allow users to define additional entities.

In the table below, the “Standard” column indicates the first version of the HTML DTD that defines the character entity reference. HTML 4.01 did not provide any new character references.

Name↓ Character↓ Unicode code point (decimal)↓ Standard↓ DTD↓ Old ISO subset↓ Description↓
quot U+0022 (34) HTML 2.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum quotation mark (= APL quote)
amp & U+0026 (38) HTML 2.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum ampersand
apos U+0027 (39) XHTML 1.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum apostrophe (= apostrophe-quote); see below
lt < U+003C (60) HTML 2.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum less-than sign
gt > U+003E (62) HTML 2.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum greater-than sign
nbsp U+00A0 (160) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum no-break space (= non-breaking space)
iexcl ¡ U+00A1 (161) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum inverted exclamation mark
cent ¢ U+00A2 (162) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum cent sign
pound £ U+00A3 (163) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum pound sign
curren ¤ U+00A4 (164) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum currency sign
yen ¥ U+00A5 (165) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum yen sign (= yuan sign)
brvbar ¦ U+00A6 (166) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum broken bar (= broken vertical bar)
sect § U+00A7 (167) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum section sign
uml ¨ U+00A8 (168) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOdia diaeresis (= spacing diaeresis); see German umlaut
copy © U+00A9 (169) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum copyright sign
ordf ª U+00AA (170) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum feminine ordinal indicator
laquo « U+00AB (171) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum left-pointing double angle quotation mark (= left pointing guillemet)
not ¬ U+00AC (172) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum not sign
shy U+00AD (173) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum soft hyphen (= discretionary hyphen)
reg ® U+00AE (174) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum registered sign ( = registered trade mark sign)
macr ¯ U+00AF (175) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOdia macron (= spacing macron = overline = APL overbar)
deg ° U+00B0 (176) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum degree sign
plusmn ± U+00B1 (177) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum plus-minus sign (= plus-or-minus sign)
sup2 ² U+00B2 (178) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum superscript two (= superscript digit two = squared)
sup3 ³ U+00B3 (179) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum superscript three (= superscript digit three = cubed)
acute ´ U+00B4 (180) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOdia acute accent (= spacing acute)
micro µ U+00B5 (181) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum micro sign
para U+00B6 (182) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum pilcrow sign ( = paragraph sign)
middot · U+00B7 (183) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum middle dot (= Georgian comma = Greek middle dot)
cedil ¸ U+00B8 (184) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOdia cedilla (= spacing cedilla)
sup1 ¹ U+00B9 (185) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum superscript one (= superscript digit one)
ordm º U+00BA (186) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum masculine ordinal indicator
raquo » U+00BB (187) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum right-pointing double angle quotation mark (= right pointing guillemet)
frac14 ¼ U+00BC (188) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum vulgar fraction one quarter (= fraction one quarter)
frac12 ½ U+00BD (189) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum vulgar fraction one half (= fraction one half)
frac34 ¾ U+00BE (190) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum vulgar fraction three quarters (= fraction three quarters)
iquest ¿ U+00BF (191) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum inverted question mark (= turned question mark)
Agrave À U+00C0 (192) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with grave (= Latin capital letter A grave)
Aacute Á U+00C1 (193) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with acute
Acirc  U+00C2 (194) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with circumflex
Atilde à U+00C3 (195) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with tilde
Auml Ä U+00C4 (196) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with diaeresis
Aring Å U+00C5 (197) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter A with ring above (= Latin capital letter A ring)
AElig Æ U+00C6 (198) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter AE (= Latin capital ligature AE)
Ccedil Ç U+00C7 (199) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter C with cedilla
Egrave È U+00C8 (200) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter E with grave
Eacute É U+00C9 (201) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter E with acute
Ecirc Ê U+00CA (202) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter E with circumflex
Euml Ë U+00CB (203) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter E with diaeresis
Igrave Ì U+00CC (204) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter I with grave
Iacute Í U+00CD (205) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter I with acute
Icirc Î U+00CE (206) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter I with circumflex
Iuml Ï U+00CF (207) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter I with diaeresis
ETH Ð U+00D0 (208) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter ETH
Ntilde Ñ U+00D1 (209) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter N with tilde
Ograve Ò U+00D2 (210) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with grave
Oacute Ó U+00D3 (211) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with acute
Ocirc Ô U+00D4 (212) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with circumflex
Otilde Õ U+00D5 (213) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with tilde
Ouml Ö U+00D6 (214) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with diaeresis
times × U+00D7 (215) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum multiplication sign
Oslash Ø U+00D8 (216) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter O with stroke (= Latin capital letter O slash)
Ugrave Ù U+00D9 (217) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter U with grave
Uacute Ú U+00DA (218) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter U with acute
Ucirc Û U+00DB (219) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter U with circumflex
Uuml Ü U+00DC (220) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter U with diaeresis
Yacute Ý U+00DD (221) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter Y with acute
THORN Þ U+00DE (222) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin capital letter THORN
szlig ß U+00DF (223) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter sharp s (= ess-zed); see German Eszett
agrave à U+00E0 (224) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with grave
aacute á U+00E1 (225) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with acute
acirc â U+00E2 (226) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with circumflex
atilde ã U+00E3 (227) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with tilde
auml ä U+00E4 (228) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with diaeresis
aring å U+00E5 (229) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter a with ring above
aelig æ U+00E6 (230) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter ae (= Latin small ligature ae)
ccedil ç U+00E7 (231) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter c with cedilla
egrave è U+00E8 (232) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter e with grave
eacute é U+00E9 (233) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter e with acute
ecirc ê U+00EA (234) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter e with circumflex
euml ë U+00EB (235) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter e with diaeresis
igrave ì U+00EC (236) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter i with grave
iacute í U+00ED (237) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter i with acute
icirc î U+00EE (238) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter i with circumflex
iuml ï U+00EF (239) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter i with diaeresis
eth ð U+00F0 (240) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter eth
ntilde ñ U+00F1 (241) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter n with tilde
ograve ò U+00F2 (242) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with grave
oacute ó U+00F3 (243) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with acute
ocirc ô U+00F4 (244) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with circumflex
otilde õ U+00F5 (245) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with tilde
ouml ö U+00F6 (246) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with diaeresis
divide ÷ U+00F7 (247) HTML 3.2 HTMLlat1 ISOnum division sign
oslash ø U+00F8 (248) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter o with stroke (= Latin small letter o slash)
ugrave ù U+00F9 (249) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter u with grave
uacute ú U+00FA (250) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter u with acute
ucirc û U+00FB (251) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter u with circumflex
uuml ü U+00FC (252) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter u with diaeresis
yacute ý U+00FD (253) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter y with acute
thorn þ U+00FE (254) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter thorn
yuml ÿ U+00FF (255) HTML 2.0 HTMLlat1 ISOlat1 Latin small letter y with diaeresis
OElig Œ U+0152 (338) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOlat2 Latin capital ligature oe[5]
oelig œ U+0153 (339) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOlat2 Latin small ligature oe[6]
Scaron Š U+0160 (352) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOlat2 Latin capital letter s with caron
scaron š U+0161 (353) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOlat2 Latin small letter s with caron
Yuml Ÿ U+0178 (376) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOlat2 Latin capital letter y with diaeresis
fnof ƒ U+0192 (402) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech Latin small letter f with hook (= function = florin)
circ ˆ U+02C6 (710) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub modifier letter circumflex accent
tilde ˜ U+02DC (732) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOdia small tilde
Alpha Α U+0391 (913) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Alpha
Beta Β U+0392 (914) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Beta
Gamma Γ U+0393 (915) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Gamma
Delta Δ U+0394 (916) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Delta
Epsilon Ε U+0395 (917) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Epsilon
Zeta Ζ U+0396 (918) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Zeta
Eta Η U+0397 (919) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Eta
Theta Θ U+0398 (920) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Theta
Iota Ι U+0399 (921) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Iota
Kappa Κ U+039A (922) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Kappa
Lambda Λ U+039B (923) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Lambda
Mu Μ U+039C (924) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Mu
Nu Ν U+039D (925) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Nu
Xi Ξ U+039E (926) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Xi
Omicron Ο U+039F (927) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Omicron
Pi Π U+03A0 (928) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Pi
Rho Ρ U+03A1 (929) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Rho
Sigma Σ U+03A3 (931) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Sigma
Tau Τ U+03A4 (932) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Tau
Upsilon Υ U+03A5 (933) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Upsilon
Phi Φ U+03A6 (934) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Phi
Chi Χ U+03A7 (935) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol Greek capital letter Chi
Psi Ψ U+03A8 (936) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Psi
Omega Ω U+03A9 (937) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek capital letter Omega
alpha α U+03B1 (945) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter alpha
beta β U+03B2 (946) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter beta
gamma γ U+03B3 (947) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter gamma
delta δ U+03B4 (948) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter delta
epsilon ε U+03B5 (949) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter epsilon
zeta ζ U+03B6 (950) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter zeta
eta η U+03B7 (951) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter eta
theta θ U+03B8 (952) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter theta
iota ι U+03B9 (953) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter iota
kappa κ U+03BA (954) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter kappa
lambda λ U+03BB (955) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter lambda
mu μ U+03BC (956) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter mu
nu ν U+03BD (957) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter nu
xi ξ U+03BE (958) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter xi
omicron ο U+03BF (959) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW Greek small letter omicron
pi π U+03C0 (960) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter pi
rho ρ U+03C1 (961) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter rho
sigmaf ς U+03C2 (962) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter final sigma
sigma σ U+03C3 (963) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter sigma
tau τ U+03C4 (964) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter tau
upsilon υ U+03C5 (965) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter upsilon
phi φ U+03C6 (966) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter phi
chi χ U+03C7 (967) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter chi
psi ψ U+03C8 (968) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter psi
omega ω U+03C9 (969) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek small letter omega
thetasym ϑ U+03D1 (977) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW Greek theta symbol
upsih ϒ U+03D2 (978) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW Greek Upsilon with hook symbol
piv ϖ U+03D6 (982) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOgrk3 Greek pi symbol
ensp U+2002 (8194) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub en space
emsp U+2003 (8195) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub em space
thinsp U+2009 (8201) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub thin space
zwnj U+200C (8204) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW RFC 2070 zero-width non-joiner
zwj U+200D (8205) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW RFC 2070 zero-width joiner
lrm U+200E (8206) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW RFC 2070 left-to-right mark
rlm U+200F (8207) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW RFC 2070 right-to-left mark
ndash U+2013 (8211) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub en dash
mdash U+2014 (8212) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub em dash
lsquo U+2018 (8216) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum left single quotation mark
rsquo U+2019 (8217) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum right single quotation mark
sbquo U+201A (8218) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW single low-9 quotation mark
ldquo U+201C (8220) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum left double quotation mark
rdquo U+201D (8221) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOnum right double quotation mark
bdquo U+201E (8222) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW double low-9 quotation mark
dagger U+2020 (8224) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub dagger, obelisk
Dagger U+2021 (8225) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub double dagger, double obelisk
bull U+2022 (8226) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOpub bullet (= black small circle)
hellip U+2026 (8230) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub horizontal ellipsis (= three dot leader)
permil U+2030 (8240) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISOtech per mille sign
prime U+2032 (8242) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech prime (= minutes = feet)
Prime U+2033 (8243) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech double prime (= seconds = inches)
lsaquo U+2039 (8249) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISO proposed single left-pointing angle quotation mark
rsaquo U+203A (8250) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial ISO proposed single right-pointing angle quotation mark
oline U+203E (8254) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW overline (= spacing overscore)
frasl U+2044 (8260) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW fraction slash (= solidus)
euro U+20AC (8364) HTML 4.0 HTMLspecial NEW euro sign
image U+2111 (8465) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamso black-letter capital I (= imaginary part)
weierp U+2118 (8472) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamso script capital P (= power set = Weierstrass p)
real U+211C (8476) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamso black-letter capital R (= real part symbol)
trade U+2122 (8482) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum trademark sign
alefsym U+2135 (8501) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW alef symbol (= first transfinite cardinal)
larr U+2190 (8592) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum leftwards arrow
uarr U+2191 (8593) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum upwards arrow
rarr U+2192 (8594) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum rightwards arrow
darr U+2193 (8595) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum downwards arrow
harr U+2194 (8596) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsa left right arrow
crarr U+21B5 (8629) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol NEW downwards arrow with corner leftwards (= carriage return)
lArr U+21D0 (8656) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech leftwards double arrow
uArr U+21D1 (8657) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsa upwards double arrow
rArr U+21D2 (8658) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOnum rightwards double arrow
dArr U+21D3 (8659) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsa downwards double arrow
hArr U+21D4 (8660) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsa left right double arrow
forall U+2200 (8704) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech for all
part U+2202 (8706) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech partial differential
exist U+2203 (8707) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech there exists
empty U+2205 (8709) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamso empty set (= null set = diameter)
nabla U+2207 (8711) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech nabla (= backward difference)
isin U+2208 (8712) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech element of
notin U+2209 (8713) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech not an element of
ni U+220B (8715) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech contains as member
prod U+220F (8719) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsb n-ary product (= product sign)
sum U+2211 (8721) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOasmb n-ary summation
minus U+2212 (8722) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech minus sign
lowast U+2217 (8727) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech asterisk operator
radic U+221A (8730) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech square root (= radical sign)
prop U+221D (8733) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech proportional to
infin U+221E (8734) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech infinity
ang U+2220 (8736) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamso angle
and U+2227 (8743) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech logical and (= wedge)
or U+2228 (8744) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech logical or (= vee)
cap U+2229 (8745) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech intersection (= cap)
cup U+222A (8746) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech union (= cup)
int U+222B (8747) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech integral
there4 U+2234 (8756) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech therefore
sim U+223C (8764) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech tilde operator (= varies with = similar to)
cong U+2245 (8773) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech congruent to
asymp U+2248 (8776) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsr almost equal to (= asymptotic to)
ne U+2260 (8800) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech not equal to
equiv U+2261 (8801) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech identical to; sometimes used for ‘equivalent to’
le U+2264 (8804) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech less-than or equal to
ge U+2265 (8805) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech greater-than or equal to
sub U+2282 (8834) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech subset of
sup U+2283 (8835) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech superset of
nsub U+2284 (8836) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsn not a subset of
sube U+2286 (8838) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech subset of or equal to
supe U+2287 (8839) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech superset of or equal to
oplus U+2295 (8853) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsb circled plus (= direct sum)
otimes U+2297 (8855) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsb circled times (= vector product)
perp U+22A5 (8869) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech up tack (= orthogonal to = perpendicular)
sdot U+22C5 (8901) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsb dot operator
lceil U+2308 (8968) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsc left ceiling (= APL upstile)
rceil U+2309 (8969) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsc right ceiling
lfloor U+230A (8970) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsc left floor (= APL downstile)
rfloor U+230B (8971) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOamsc right floor
lang U+2329 (9001) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech left-pointing angle bracket (= bra)
rang U+232A (9002) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOtech right-pointing angle bracket (= ket)
loz U+25CA (9674) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub lozenge
spades U+2660 (9824) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub black spade suit
clubs U+2663 (9827) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub black club suit (= shamrock)
hearts U+2665 (9829) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub black heart suit (= valentine)
diams U+2666 (9830) HTML 4.0 HTMLsymbol ISOpub black diamond suit

Notes:

  • ^ DTD: the full public DTD name (where the character entity name is defined) is actually mapped from one of the following three defined named entities:
    HTMLlat1
    maps to:

    HTMLsymbol
    maps to:

    HTMLspecial
    maps to:

  • ^ Old ISO subset: these are old (documented) character subsets used in legacy encodings before the unification within ISO 10646.
  • ^ Description: the standard ISO 10646 and Unicode character name is displayed first for each character, with non-standard but legacy synonyms shown in italics between parentheses after an equal sign)
  • ^ spaces: a blue background has been used in order to display each space’s width.
  • ^ ISO proposed: these characters have been standardized in ISO 10646 after the release of HTML 4.0.
  • ^ ligature: this is a standard misnomer as this is a separate character in some languages.
  • ^ black: here it seems to mean filled as opposed to hollow.
  • ^ alefsym: ‘alef symbol’ is NOT the same as U+05D0 ‘Hebrew letter alef’, although the same glyph could be used to depict both characters.
  • ^ lArr: ISO 10646 does not say that ‘leftwards double arrow’ is the same as the ‘is implied by’ arrow but also does not have any other character for that function. So lArr can be used for ‘is implied by’ as ISOtech suggests.
  • ^ rArr: ISO 10646 does not say that ‘rightwards double arrow’ is the ‘implies’ character but does not have another character with this function so rArr can be used for ‘implies’ as ISOtech suggests.
  • ^ prod: ‘n-ary product’ is NOT the same character as U+03A0 ‘Greek capital letter Pi’ though the same glyph might be used for both.
  • ^ sum: ‘n-ary summation’ is NOT the same character as U+03A3 ‘Greek capital letter Sigma’ though the same glyph might be used for both.
  • ^ sim: ’tilde operator’ is NOT the same character as U+007E ’tilde’, although the same glyph might be used to represent both.
  • ^ sup: note that nsup, U+2283 ‘not a superset of’, is not covered by the Symbol font encoding and is not included. Should it be, for symmetry? It is in the ISOamsn subset.
  • ^ perp: Unicode only defines U+22A5 as the “up tack”. The Unicode symbol for “perpendicular” is U+27C2. The two symbols look similar, but are separate in Unicode. However, HTML uses U+22A5 as its “perpendicular” symbol. This is a discrepancy between HTML and Unicode. As well, the U+22A4 character (the “down tack” symbol) rendered in a browser such as FireFox 3.6 can match the font of either “up tack” or “perpendicular”, but not both, depending on whether a fixed-width or a proportional font is used. When viewed in FireFox 3.6, the symbols rendered in the order U+22A5, U+22A4, U+27C2 in a proportional font: ⊥ ⊤ ⟂ and a fixed width one: ⊥ ⊤ ⟂, shows that the “down tack” has a similar look to U+22A5 (HTML’s “perpendicular”) in the first case but matches U+27C2 in the second. This exemplifies the difficulties of the semiotics involved in interpreting glyphssymbols and characters generally.
  • ^ sdot: ‘dot operator’ is NOT the same character as U+00B7 ‘middle dot’.
  • ^ lang: ‘left-pointing angle bracket’ is NOT the same character as U+003C ‘less than’ or U+2039 ‘single left-pointing angle quotation mark’.
  • ^ rang: ‘right-pointing angle bracket’ is NOT the same character as U+003E ‘greater than’ or U+203A ‘single right-pointing angle quotation mark’.

Entities representing special characters in XHTML

The XHTML DTDs explicitly declare 253 entities (including the 5 predefined entities of XML 1.0) whose expansion is a single character, which can therefore be informally referred to as “character entities”. These (with the exception of the &apos; entity) have the same names and represent the same characters as the 252 character entities in HTML. Also, by virtue of being XML, XHTML documents may reference the predefined &apos; entity, which is not one of the 252 character entities in HTML. Additional entities of any size may be defined on a per-document basis. However, the usability of entity references in XHTML is affected by how the document is being processed:

  • If the document is read by a conforming HTML processor, then only the 252 HTML character entities can safely be used. The use of &apos; or custom entity references may not be supported and may produce unpredictable results.
  • If the document is read by an XML parser that does not or cannot read external entities, then only the five built-in XML character entities (see above) can safely be used, although other entities may be used if they are declared in the internal DTD subset.
  • If the document is read by an XML parser that does read external entities, then the five built-in XML character entities can safely be used. The other 248 HTML character entities can be used as long as the XHTML DTD is accessible to the parser at the time the document is read. Other entities may also be used if they are declared in the internal DTD subset.

Because of the special &apos; case mentioned above, only &quot;&amp;&lt;, and &gt; will work in all processing situations.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *