Two reasons for using a character entity:
A character entity is represented in an HTML document as an SGML entity whose name is defined in the HTML DTD. The HTML DTD includes a character entity for each of the SGML markup characters and for each of the printing characters in the upper half of Latin-1, so that one may reference them by name if it is inconvenient to enter them directly:
NOTE: To ensure that a string of characters is not interpreted as markup, represent all occurrences of <, >, and & by character or entity references.
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ISO Latin 1 Character Entities | Numerical Character References
The following entity names are used in HTML, always prefixed by ampersand (&) and followed by a semicolon as shown. They represent particular graphic characters which have special meanings in places in the markup, or may not be part of the character set available to the writer.
Top of Page | Character Entities | Numeric and Special Graphic Entities
ISO Latin 1 Character Entities | Numerical Character References
The following table lists each of the supported characters specified in the Numeric and Special Graphic entity set, along with its name, syntax for use, and description. This list is derived from ISO Standard 8879:1986//ENTITIES Numeric and Special Graphic//EN however HTML does not provide support for the entire entity set. Only the entities listed below are supported.
GLYPH NAME SYNTAX DESCRIPTION < lt < Less than sign > gt > Greater than sign & amp & Ampersand " quot " Double quote sign
Top of Page | Character Entities | Numeric and Special Graphic Entities
ISO Latin 1 Character Entities | Numerical Character References
NAME SYNTAX APPEARS AS DESCRIPTION Aacute Á Á Capital A, acute accent Agrave À À Capital A, grave accent Acirc   Capital A, circumflex accent Atilde à à Capital A, tilde Aring Å Å Capital A, ring Auml Ä Ä Capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark AElig Æ Æ Capital AE dipthong (ligature) Ccedil Ç Ç Capital C, cedilla Eacute É É Capital E, acute accent Egrave È È Capital E, grave accent Ecirc Ê Ê Capital E, circumflex accent Euml Ë Ë Capital E, dieresis or umlaut mark Iacute Í Í Capital I, acute accent Igrave Ì Ì Capital I, grave accent Icirc Î Î Capital I, circumflex accent Iuml Ï Ï Capital I, dieresis or umlaut mark ETH Ð Ð Capital Eth, Icelandic Ntilde Ñ Ñ Capital N, tilde Oacute Ó Ó Capital O, acute accent Ograve Ò Ò Capital O, grave accent Ocirc Ô Ô Capital O, circumflex accent Otilde Õ Õ Capital O, tilde Ouml Ö Ö Capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark Oslash Ø Ø Capital O, slash Uacute Ú Ú Capital U, acute accent Ugrave Ù Ù Capital U, grave accent Ucirc Û Û Capital U, circumflex accent Uuml Ü Ü Capital U, dieresis or umlaut mark Yacute Ý Ý Capital Y, acute accent THORN Þ Þ Capital THORN, Icelandic szlig ß ß Small sharp s, German (sz ligature) aacute á á Small a, acute accent agrave à à Small a, grave accent acirc â â Small a, circumflex accent atilde ã ã Small a, tilde aring å å Small a, ring auml ä ä Small a, dieresis or umlaut mark aelig æ æ Small ae dipthong (ligature) ccedil ç ç Small c, cedilla eacute é é Small e, acute accent egrave è è Small e, grave accent ecirc ê ê Small e, circumflex accent euml ë ë Small e, dieresis or umlaut mark iacute í í Small i, acute accent igrave ì ì Small i, grave accent icirc î î Small i, circumflex accent iuml ï ï Small i, dieresis or umlaut mark eth ð ð Small eth, Icelandic ntilde ñ ñ Small n, tilde oacute ó ó Small o, acute accent ograve ò ò Small o, grave accent ocirc ô ô Small o, circumflex accent otilde õ õ Small o, tilde ouml ö ö Small o, dieresis or umlaut mark oslash ø ø Small o, slash uacute ú ú Small u, acute accent ugrave ù ù Small u, grave accent ucirc û û Small u, circumflex accent uuml ü ü Small u, dieresis or umlaut mark yacute ý ý Small y, acute accent thorn þ þ Small thorn, Icelandic yuml ÿ ÿ Small y, dieresis or umlaut mark
Top of Page | Character Entities | Numeric and Special Graphic Entities
ISO Latin 1 Character Entities | Numerical Character References
SYNTAX APPEARS AS DESCRIPTION
  Space
! ! Exclamation mark
" " Quotation mark
# # Number sign
$ $ Dollar sign
% % Percent sign
& & Ampersand
' ' Apostrophe
( ( Left parenthesis
) ) Right parenthesis
* * Asterisk
+ + Plus sign
, , Comma
- - Hyphen
. . Period (fullstop)
/ / Solidus (slash)
: : Colon
; ; Semi-colon
< < Less than
= = Equals aign
> > Greater than
? ? Question mark
@ @ Commercial at
[ [ Left square bracket
\ \ Reverse solidus (backslash)
] ] Right square bracket
^ ^ Caret
_ _ Horizontal bar
` ` Acute accent
{ { Left curly brace
| | Vertical bar
} } Right curly brace
~ ~ Tilde
¡ ¡ Inverted exclamation
¢ ¢ Cent sign
£ £ Pound sterling
¤ ¤ General currency sign
¥ ¥ Yen sign
¦ ¦ Broken vertical bar
§ § Section sign
¨ ¨ Umlaut (dieresis)
© © Copyright
ª ª Feminine ordinal
« « Left angle quote, guillemotleft
¬ ¬ Not sign
­ Soft hyphen
® ® Registered trademark
¯ ¯ Macron accent
° ° Degree sign
± ± Plus or minus
² ² Superscript two
³ ³ Superscript three
´ ´ Acute accent
µ µ Micro sign
¶ ¶ Paragraph sign
· · Middle dot
¸ ¸ Cedilla
¹ ¹ Superscript one
º º Masculine ordinal
» » Right angle quote, guillemotright
¼ ¼ Fraction one-fourth
½ ½ Fraction one-half
¾ ¾ Fraction three-fourths
¿ ¿ Inverted question mark
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ISO Latin 1 Character Entities | Numerical Character References
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