XHTML 1.0 Symbol Character References

A robot on a path through a forest, holding a tablet displaying computer characters

Technical Level:	Intermediate	Published:	4^th January 2003
Author:	Nigel Peck	Last Updated:	22^nd October 2025

The complete listings of XHTML 1.0 Character References are separated in three articles.

Introduction

This article details the symbol character references and corresponding entity references available to your XHTML 1.0 documents. This is the third of a series of three articles detailing each of the three sets laid out in the XHTML DTDs.

An explanation of character references will be given in part two of my article XHTML Web Design for Beginners. I decided to release these tables as separate articles in order to make them easily accessible to those who don't want to read the series.

What the columns mean

The first column gives the named version of the entity, the second is the named entity itself. This allows you to see if that character reference works in the browser you are using to view this document via the named entity.

The third column gives the numeric entity, the fourth is the numeric entity itself. This allows you to see if that character reference works in the browser you are using to view this document via the numeric entity.

The fifth column is the description of the entity as found in the XHTML 1.0 DTDs at http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html#a_dtd_Symbols.

Complete listing of XHTML 1.0 Symbol Character References
Entity Reference	Test	Character Reference	Test	Description
Latin Extended-B
&fnof;	ƒ	ƒ	ƒ	latin small letter f with hook = function = florin, U+0192 ISOtech
Greek
Α	Α	Α	Α	greek capital letter alpha, U+0391
Β	Β	Β	Β	greek capital letter beta, U+0392
Γ	Γ	Γ	Γ	greek capital letter gamma, U+0393 ISOgrk3
Δ	Δ	Δ	Δ	greek capital letter delta, U+0394 ISOgrk3
Ε	Ε	Ε	Ε	greek capital letter epsilon, U+0395
Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	greek capital letter zeta, U+0396
Η	Η	Η	Η	greek capital letter eta, U+0397
Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ	greek capital letter theta, U+0398 ISOgrk3
Ι	Ι	Ι	Ι	greek capital letter iota, U+0399
Κ	Κ	Κ	Κ	greek capital letter kappa, U+039A
Λ	Λ	Λ	Λ	greek capital letter lamda, U+039B ISOgrk3
Μ	Μ	Μ	Μ	greek capital letter mu, U+039C
Ν	Ν	Ν	Ν	greek capital letter nu, U+039D
Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	greek capital letter xi, U+039E ISOgrk3
Ο	Ο	Ο	Ο	greek capital letter omicron, U+039F
Π	Π	Π	Π	greek capital letter pi, U+03A0 ISOgrk3
Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	greek capital letter rho, U+03A1
note: there is no Sigmaf, and no U+03A2 character either
Σ	Σ	Σ	Σ	greek capital letter sigma, U+03A3 ISOgrk3
Τ	Τ	Τ	Τ	greek capital letter tau, U+03A4
Υ	Υ	Υ	Υ	greek capital letter upsilon, U+03A5 ISOgrk3
Φ	Φ	Φ	Φ	greek capital letter phi, U+03A6 ISOgrk3
Χ	Χ	Χ	Χ	greek capital letter chi, U+03A7
Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	greek capital letter psi, U+03A8 ISOgrk3
Ω	Ω	Ω	Ω	greek capital letter omega, U+03A9 ISOgrk3
α	α	α	α	greek small letter alpha, U+03B1 ISOgrk3
β	β	β	β	greek small letter beta, U+03B2 ISOgrk3
γ	γ	γ	γ	greek small letter gamma, U+03B3 ISOgrk3
δ	δ	δ	δ	greek small letter delta, U+03B4 ISOgrk3
ε	ε	ε	ε	greek small letter epsilon, U+03B5 ISOgrk3
ζ	ζ	ζ	ζ	greek small letter zeta, U+03B6 ISOgrk3
η	η	η	η	greek small letter eta, U+03B7 ISOgrk3
θ	θ	θ	θ	greek small letter theta, U+03B8 ISOgrk3
ι	ι	ι	ι	greek small letter iota, U+03B9 ISOgrk3
κ	κ	κ	κ	greek small letter kappa, U+03BA ISOgrk3
λ	λ	λ	λ	greek small letter lamda, U+03BB ISOgrk3
μ	μ	μ	μ	greek small letter mu, U+03BC ISOgrk3
ν	ν	ν	ν	greek small letter nu, U+03BD ISOgrk3
ξ	ξ	ξ	ξ	greek small letter xi, U+03BE ISOgrk3
ο	ο	ο	ο	greek small letter omicron, U+03BF NEW
π	π	π	π	greek small letter pi, U+03C0 ISOgrk3
ρ	ρ	ρ	ρ	greek small letter rho, U+03C1 ISOgrk3
&sigmaf;	ς	ς	ς	greek small letter final sigma, U+03C2 ISOgrk3
σ	σ	σ	σ	greek small letter sigma, U+03C3 ISOgrk3
τ	τ	τ	τ	greek small letter tau, U+03C4 ISOgrk3
υ	υ	υ	υ	greek small letter upsilon, U+03C5 ISOgrk3
φ	φ	φ	φ	greek small letter phi, U+03C6 ISOgrk3
χ	χ	χ	χ	greek small letter chi, U+03C7 ISOgrk3
ψ	ψ	ψ	ψ	greek small letter psi, U+03C8 ISOgrk3
ω	ω	ω	ω	greek small letter omega, U+03C9 ISOgrk3
&thetasym;	ϑ	ϑ	ϑ	greek theta symbol, U+03D1 NEW
&upsih;	ϒ	ϒ	ϒ	greek upsilon with hook symbol, U+03D2 NEW
ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	greek pi symbol, U+03D6 ISOgrk3
General Punctuation
•	•	•	•	bullet = black small circle, U+2022 ISOpub
note: bullet is NOT the same as bullet operator, U+2219
…	…	…	…	horizontal ellipsis = three dot leader, U+2026 ISOpub
′	′	′	′	prime = minutes = feet, U+2032 ISOtech
″	″	″	″	double prime = seconds = inches, U+2033 ISOtech
&oline;	‾	‾	‾	overline = spacing overscore, U+203E NEW
&frasl;	⁄	⁄	⁄	fraction slash, U+2044 NEW
Letterlike Symbols
&weierp;	℘	℘	℘	script capital P = power set = Weierstrass p, U+2118 ISOamso
&image;	ℑ	ℑ	ℑ	black-letter capital I = imaginary part, U+2111 ISOamso
&real;	ℜ	ℜ	ℜ	black-letter capital R = real part symbol, U+211C ISOamso
™	™	™	™	trade mark sign, U+2122 ISOnum
&alefsym;	ℵ	ℵ	ℵ	alef symbol = first transfinite cardinal, U+2135 NEW
note: alef symbol is NOT the same as hebrew letter alef, U+05D0 although the same glyph could be used to depict both characters
Arrows
←	←	←	←	leftwards arrow, U+2190 ISOnum
↑	↑	↑	↑	upwards arrow, U+2191 ISOnum
→	→	→	→	rightwards arrow, U+2192 ISOnum
↓	↓	↓	↓	downwards arrow, U+2193 ISOnum
↔	↔	↔	↔	left right arrow, U+2194 ISOamsa
&crarr;	↵	↵	↵	downwards arrow with corner leftwards = carriage return, U+21B5 NEW
⇐	⇐	⇐	⇐	leftwards double arrow, U+21D0 ISOtech
note: Unicode does not say that lArr 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
&uArr;	⇑	⇑	⇑	upwards double arrow, U+21D1 ISOamsa
⇒	⇒	⇒	⇒	rightwards double arrow, U+21D2 ISOtech
note: Unicode does not say this is the 'implies' character but does not have another character with this function so rArr can be used for 'implies' as ISOtech suggests
&dArr;	⇓	⇓	⇓	downwards double arrow, U+21D3 ISOamsa
⇔	⇔	⇔	⇔	left right double arrow, U+21D4 ISOamsa
Mathematical Operators
∀	∀	∀	∀	for all, U+2200 ISOtech
∂	∂	∂	∂	partial differential, U+2202 ISOtech
∃	∃	∃	∃	there exists, U+2203 ISOtech
∅	∅	∅	∅	empty set = null set, U+2205 ISOamso
∇	∇	∇	∇	nabla = backward difference, U+2207 ISOtech
∈	∈	∈	∈	element of, U+2208 ISOtech
∉	∉	∉	∉	not an element of, U+2209 ISOtech
&ni;	∋	∋	∋	contains as member, U+220B ISOtech
∏	∏	∏	∏	n-ary product = product sign, U+220F ISOamsb
note: prod is NOT the same character as U+03A0 'greek capital letter pi' though the same glyph might be used for both
∑	∑	∑	∑	n-ary summation, U+2211 ISOamsb
note: sum is NOT the same character as U+03A3 'greek capital letter sigma' though the same glyph might be used for both
−	−	−	−	minus sign, U+2212 ISOtech
&lowast;	∗	∗	∗	asterisk operator, U+2217 ISOtech
√	√	√	√	square root = radical sign, U+221A ISOtech
&prop;	∝	∝	∝	proportional to, U+221D ISOtech
∞	∞	∞	∞	infinity, U+221E ISOtech
&ang;	∠	∠	∠	angle, U+2220 ISOamso
&and;	∧	∧	∧	logical and = wedge, U+2227 ISOtech
&or;	∨	∨	∨	logical or = vee, U+2228 ISOtech
∩	∩	∩	∩	intersection = cap, U+2229 ISOtech
∪	∪	∪	∪	union = cup, U+222A ISOtech
∫	∫	∫	∫	integral, U+222B ISOtech
&there4;	∴	∴	∴	therefore, U+2234 ISOtech
&sim;	∼	∼	∼	tilde operator = varies with = similar to, U+223C ISOtech
note: tilde operator is NOT the same character as the tilde, U+007E, although the same glyph might be used to represent both
&cong;	≅	≅	≅	approximately equal to, U+2245 ISOtech
≈	≈	≈	≈	almost equal to = asymptotic to, U+2248 ISOamsr
≠	≠	≠	≠	not equal to, U+2260 ISOtech
&equiv;	≡	≡	≡	identical to, U+2261 ISOtech
≤	≤	≤	≤	less-than or equal to, U+2264 ISOtech
≥	≥	≥	≥	greater-than or equal to, U+2265 ISOtech
⊂	⊂	⊂	⊂	subset of, U+2282 ISOtech
⊃	⊃	⊃	⊃	superset of, U+2283 ISOtech
&nsub;	⊄	⊄	⊄	not a subset of, U+2284 ISOamsn
&sube;	⊆	⊆	⊆	subset of or equal to, U+2286 ISOtech
&supe;	⊇	⊇	⊇	superset of or equal to, U+2287 ISOtech
&oplus;	⊕	⊕	⊕	circled plus = direct sum, U+2295 ISOamsb
&otimes;	⊗	⊗	⊗	circled times = vector product, U+2297 ISOamsb
&perp;	⊥	⊥	⊥	up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular, U+22A5 ISOtech
⋅	⋅	⋅	⋅	dot operator, U+22C5 ISOamsb
note: dot operator is NOT the same character as U+00B7 middle dot
Miscellaneous Technical
&lceil;	⌈	⌈	⌈	left ceiling = APL upstile, U+2308 ISOamsc
&rceil;	⌉	⌉	⌉	right ceiling, U+2309 ISOamsc
&lfloor;	⌊	⌊	⌊	left floor = APL downstile, U+230A ISOamsc
&rfloor;	⌋	⌋	⌋	right floor, U+230B ISOamsc
&lang;	⟨	〈	〈	left-pointing angle bracket = bra, U+2329 ISOtech
note: lang is NOT the same character as U+003C 'less than sign' or U+2039 'single left-pointing angle quotation mark'
&rang;	⟩	〉	〉	right-pointing angle bracket = ket, U+232A ISOtech
note: rang is NOT the same character as U+003E 'greater than sign' or U+203A 'single right-pointing angle quotation mark'
Geometric Shapes
&loz;	◊	◊	◊	lozenge, U+25CA ISOpub
Miscellaneous Symbols
&spades;	♠	♠	♠	black spade suit, U+2660 ISOpub
note: black here seems to mean filled as opposed to hollow
&clubs;	♣	♣	♣	black club suit = shamrock, U+2663 ISOpub
&hearts;	♥	♥	♥	black heart suit = valentine, U+2665 ISOpub
&diams;	♦	♦	♦	black diamond suit, U+2666 ISOpub

January 4, 2003	The article was first published.
October 22, 2025	The table was updated, improving the display and adding a caption.

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