HTML Special Characters

Learn how to display reserved characters, symbols, spaces, currency signs, and other special characters correctly in HTML.

What are HTML Special Characters?

Some characters have a special meaning in HTML. For example, the less-than sign < is used to begin an HTML tag.

When you need to display such characters as normal text, HTML character references can be used.

Example: To display: < in normal page text, you can write: <

HTML Character References

Special characters can be represented using character references. A character reference commonly starts with & and ends with ;.

&lt;
&gt;
&amp;
&quot;
&copy;

The browser interprets these references and displays the corresponding characters.

Less Than Symbol

The less-than symbol is written as:

&lt;

Example

<p>
    5 &lt; 10
</p>

5 < 10

Greater Than Symbol

The greater-than symbol can be written as:

&gt;

Example

<p>
    10 &gt; 5
</p>

10 > 5

Ampersand Symbol

The ampersand symbol is represented using:

&amp;

Quotation Mark

The double quotation mark can be represented using:

&quot;

Example

<p>
    He said &quot;Hello&quot;.
</p>

He said "Hello".

Non-Breaking Space

The   character reference represents a non-breaking space.

&nbsp;

It creates a space that the browser does not normally collapse with adjacent spaces and keeps the words together across a line break.

Example

<p>
    CIIT&nbsp;Institute
</p>

CIIT Institute

Copyright Symbol

&copy;

Example

<p>
    &copy; CIIT Institute
</p>

Registered Trademark Symbol

&reg;

Example

<p>
    CIIT&reg;
</p>

CIIT®

Trademark Symbol

&trade;

™

Example

<p>
    CIIT&trade;
</p>

CIIT™

Currency Symbols

HTML can display a wide range of currency symbols using character references or Unicode characters.

Symbol	Reference	Output
Rupee	`₹`	₹
Dollar	`&dollar;`	$
Euro	`€`	€
Pound	`£`	£
Yen	`¥`	¥

Mathematical Symbols

Symbol	Reference	Output
Less Than	`<`	<
Greater Than	`>`	>
Plus/Minus	`±`	±
Multiplication	`×`	×
Division	`÷`	÷
Not Equal	`≠`	≠
Less Than or Equal	`≤`	≤
Greater Than or Equal	`≥`	≥

Arrow Symbols

Symbol	Reference	Output
Left Arrow	`←`	←
Right Arrow	`→`	→
Up Arrow	`↑`	↑
Down Arrow	`↓`	↓
Left-Right Arrow	`↔`	↔

Other Common Special Characters

Character	Reference	Result
Cent	`¢`	¢
Section	`§`	§
Degree	`°`	°
Paragraph	`¶`	¶
Bullet	`•`	•
Middle Dot	`·`	·

Numeric Character References

Characters can also be represented using numeric character references.

&#169;
&#174;
&#8377;

® Registered

₹ Indian Rupee

Hexadecimal Character References

Unicode characters can also be represented using hexadecimal numeric references.

&#x20AC;

€

The example above represents the Euro symbol.

Example in an HTML Page

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

    <title>
        Special Characters
    </title>

</head>

<body>

    <p>
        5 &lt; 10
    </p>

    <p>
        CIIT &copy; Institute
    </p>

    <p>
        Price: &#8377;4500
    </p>

    <p>
        HTML &rarr; CSS &rarr; JavaScript
    </p>

</body>

</html>

Output

5 < 10

Price: ₹4500

HTML → CSS → JavaScript

Important Rules

Character references normally begin with &.
Named references usually end with ;.
Use character references when a character could be interpreted as HTML markup.
Numeric character references can represent Unicode characters.
Always choose the correct character reference for the character you want to display.

Common Mistakes

Writing < directly when it should be interpreted as text.
Forgetting the semicolon at the end of a named character reference.
Using an incorrect character reference.
Confusing HTML character references with CSS escape sequences or programming-language escapes.

Practice Exercise

Display < and > as normal text.
Display an ampersand using &.
Display a copyright symbol.
Display the Indian Rupee symbol.
Display a right arrow.
Create a small HTML page containing at least five different special characters.

Summary

HTML character references are used to display special characters and symbols safely in HTML. Common examples include <, >, &, ©, ®, and  . Numeric and hexadecimal references can also be used to represent Unicode characters.

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