Glossary
Entity

Entity

An entity is a representation of a special character that causes syntax conflicts in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Some symbols cause web browsers to misinterpret them as HTML tags or confuse them with other syntaxes. Using entities allows you to replace these reserved characters with corresponding entity codes to achieve your desired effect. 

For example, your browser may interpret a less than (<) or greater than (>) symbol as a tag. To avoid this, use &lt; to replace < and &gt; to replace >

Here’s an HTML code snippet for bold text using the less than (<) and greater than symbols: 

<p>This is an example of <strong>bold</strong> text. </p>

The below HTML code snippet replaces the less than (<) and greater than (>) symbols with &lt; and &gt;, respectively : 

<p>This is an example of a &lt;strong&gt;bold&lt;/strong&gt; text. </p>

Here’s a list of common reserved characters and their entities:

Character Entity Function
° &deg; Rendered as the degree symbol.
&ndash; Rendered as the en dash.
&mdash; Rendered as the em dash.
£ &pound; Rendered as the pound sign.
&euro; Rendered as the euro sign.

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