How to Look Up and Copy HTML Character Entities and Unicode Symbols

Updated

AmpWhat (amp-what.com) is a browser-based reference for Unicode characters and HTML entities that lets you search by name or symbol, then copy the character in the format you need — Unicode code point, HTML decimal, HTML hex, CSS, JSON/JavaScript, URL encoding, or Windows Alt key. It fits the common case of "I need a specific symbol and I need it in the right syntax for my file." It is a lookup and copy tool, not a converter for bulk text, so if you need to encode a whole document you'll want a different utility.

What AmpWhat covers

According to the site, it indexes thousands of HTML character entities and common Unicode characters, including:

  • 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters
  • Quotation marks and punctuation
  • Accented characters
  • Symbols and mathematical symbols
  • Greek letters
  • Icons and emoji
  • Markup-significant and internationalization characters

The page describes itself as "the place to explore the characters and icons underlying your browser, computer and phone," and notes the collection is known as Unicode.

Step-by-step: find and copy a character

The site's own instructions are four steps. Here they are with the expected result at each stage:

  1. Type in the search box. Enter a name, a keyword, or paste the symbol itself. For example, searching triangle surfaces triangle characters; searching nbsp surfaces the no-break space. Expected result: a filtered set of matching characters.
  2. Or click a pre-made search. The homepage shows a row of ready-made searches (arrows, punctuation, math symbols, emoji, flags, and more). Expected result: a browsable category instead of a text query. This is useful when you don't know the Unicode name of what you want.
  3. Select and click a character to copy it. The page tells you to "look for the ⧉ and ⊕ cursor" — those cursor changes indicate a character is copyable. Expected result: the character (or its code, depending on your settings) goes to your clipboard.
  4. Explore. Repeat with different searches or categories.

Choosing the right output format

The Settings panel controls what gets copied. Under "Usage," you can include character codes for:

Format Use it when
Unicode (U+0000) Writing documentation, specs, or referring to a code point by name
HTML – Decimal Using a numeric entity like ▲ in HTML
HTML – Hex Using a hex entity like ▲ in HTML
JSON and JavaScript Embedding the character or its escape in JS/JSON
CSS Property Values Putting the character into a content: value
URL Encoding – %N Building a percent-encoded URL
Windows Alt Keys Typing the character on Windows via the numeric keypad
None Copying the bare character with no code

The practical distinction: named entities (like &,  , ©) are readable but only exist for a limited set of characters. Numeric entities — decimal (©) or hex (©) — work for any Unicode code point, so when a named entity doesn't exist, fall back to a numeric one. If you're writing CSS content, use the CSS format rather than an HTML entity, since entities aren't parsed in stylesheets.

Common snags and how to work around them

  • You can't find the character by name. Try the code point if you know it, or search a related word. The site's keyword list shows people arrive via descriptions like "upside down caret character," "peace character," or "telephone character" — descriptive terms often work when the formal Unicode name doesn't come to mind.
  • You need a space that won't collapse. Search nbsp or no-break space. The site explicitly indexes nbsp, non-breaking space, and whitespace, which is the usual fix for "multiple nbsp instead of a tab space" problems.
  • You need a markup-significant character. Searching less-than sign or greater-than sign gets you the entity forms you need to display < and > as text rather than as tags.
  • You want to browse rather than search. Use the pre-made searches or the Unicode Blocks index in the footer to move through related characters.

Practical notes

AmpWhat is an interaction from NDP Software, with a change log and settings page linked in the footer. The Settings panel also offers an option to hide ads. The site does not state pricing for the tool itself; the footer links to Patreon for support, so treat any payment as optional support rather than a documented requirement. For a one-off symbol lookup and copy, the free browser workflow above is all you need; for converting large blocks of text between entities and characters, use a dedicated encoder instead.