HTML Symbols: Get Familiar With HTML Special Character Codes

Adding HTML Special Characters

To be comfortable to use, a computer keyboard has to be rather compact. However, this also means it can contain a limited amount of symbols. That is why a lot of HTML special characters cannot be simply typed in.

The easiest way to include special characters in HTML documents is by writing their entity names. An entity name always starts with an ampersand (&) and ends with a semicolon (;):

&entityname;

There is no need to use tags, attributes, properties, or values. When writing text in your website, include the entity name when needed:

<!–– Use &mdash; or &#8212; to add — ––> 
<h2>Learn to add the beautiful em dash &mdash; it is so easy!</h2>

However, not all HTML symbols have entity names. In that case, you should write HTML special character codes - entity numbers, decimal or hexadecimal references:

<p>This is the trademark symbol - &trade;</p>
<p>This is the trademark symbol - &#8482;</p>
<p>This is the trademark symbol - &#x2122;</p>

HTML Entities List

In the following section, we will introduce you to the most commonly used HTML special characters and ways to add them to your documents. However, the whole selection of them is much wider – you can check it out in this page created by the World Web Consortium.

Most Common Entities

Currency Symbols

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Mathematical Symbols

Greek Letters

Other Symbols

HTML Symbols: Useful Tips

• To prevent your web page from failing to display HTML special characters, define the charset as UTF-8 in the <meta> tag of your HTML document.
• If you need to include East Asian characters in your web page, consider adding ruby annotations to help the user with their pronunciation.
• With HTML symbol codes, you can also include emojis: try adding &#9996; or &#9752; to your page!