HTML Entities Cheatsheet

A quick reference for HTML character entities — essential escapes, symbols, currency signs, arrows, and special typographic characters.

Updated Apr 11, 2026

Sections

These five characters must always be escaped inside HTML content and attributes.

Character	Named Entity	Numeric	Notes
`&`	&	&	Ampersand — must escape in content and attributes
`<`	<	<	Less-than — starts a tag
`>`	>	>	Greater-than — ends a tag
`"`	"	"	Double quote — escape inside double-quoted attributes
`'`	'	'	Single quote (apostrophe) — escape inside single-quoted attributes

Character	Named Entity	Description
		Non-breaking space — prevents line break
`–`	–	En dash — ranges (2010–2020)
`—`	—	Em dash — parenthetical — like this
`'`	‘	Left single quotation mark
`'`	’	Right single quotation mark / apostrophe
`“`	“	Left double quotation mark
`”`	”	Right double quotation mark
`‹`	&lsaquo;	Single left-pointing angle quotation
`›`	&rsaquo;	Single right-pointing angle quotation
`«`	«	Double left-pointing angle quotation
`»`	»	Double right-pointing angle quotation

A practical guide to HTML escaping — why it matters for security, which characters to escape, when to use it, and how XSS happens when you skip it.