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HTML Entity Decoder

Decode HTML entities back to their original characters. Convert &amp;lt;, &amp;amp;, &amp;quot; and numeric entities to readable text.

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How to Use

  1. 1

    Paste encoded text

    Enter or paste text containing HTML entities like &amp;lt;, &amp;amp;, &amp;quot;, &#169;, or any other HTML entities.

  2. 2

    Click Decode

    The tool converts all HTML entities back to their original characters.

  3. 3

    Copy the result

    Click Copy to copy the decoded, readable text to your clipboard.

What is HTML Entity Decoder?

An HTML entity decoder converts entity references like &lt;, &amp;, &quot;, and &#169; back into their original characters (<, &, ", ©). You need it whenever you encounter text that has been HTML-encoded — in page source code, web scraping output, RSS feeds, CMS exports, or API responses that return HTML-safe strings.

HTML entities exist because certain characters have special meaning in HTML markup. The < character starts a tag, & starts an entity sequence, and quotes delimit attribute values. When these characters appear in text content, they are encoded to prevent the browser from misinterpreting them. This decoder reverses that process so you can read and work with the original text.

The tool handles all three entity formats: named entities like &amp; and &lt;, decimal numeric entities like &#38; and &#169;, and hexadecimal numeric entities like &#x26; and &#xA9;. It recognizes the full set of HTML5 named entities — over 2,200 names — including symbols, arrows, mathematical operators, currency signs, and typographic characters.

Processing runs entirely in your browser. For the reverse operation — encoding text for safe HTML display — use our HTML Entity Encoder. If you need to decode percent-encoded URLs instead, use the URL Decoder — HTML entities and URL percent-encoding are different encoding schemes for different contexts.

FAQ

What entities are supported?
The decoder handles common named entities (&amp;amp;, &amp;lt;, &amp;gt;, &amp;quot;, &amp;nbsp;, &amp;copy;, &amp;reg;, &amp;mdash;, and more), decimal numeric entities like &#169;, and hexadecimal numeric entities like &#x00A9;.
Why does my decoded text still contain some entities?
Some less common named entities might not be in the decoder's dictionary. Numeric entities (&#...;) are always decoded. If you encounter an unsupported named entity, let us know.
Can I decode a full HTML page?
You can paste any text containing HTML entities and they will be decoded. However, this tool decodes entities only — it doesn't strip HTML tags. For removing tags, you'd need a different tool.
What is the difference between HTML decoding and URL decoding?
HTML decoding converts entity references (&lt;, &amp;, &#169;) used in HTML documents back to their original characters. URL decoding converts percent-encoded sequences (%20, %3D, %26) used in URLs. They are completely different encoding formats — if you see percent signs, use a URL decoder; if you see ampersand-semicolon sequences, use this HTML decoder.
How do I decode HTML entities in JavaScript?
The simplest approach is to use the DOMParser API: new DOMParser().parseFromString(encoded, 'text/html').body.textContent. Alternatively, create a temporary element: const el = document.createElement('textarea'); el.innerHTML = encoded; return el.value. Both handle all named, decimal, and hexadecimal entities.

Related Articles

HTML Entities: Complete Reference Table with Examples

URL Encoding & Percent-Encoding: Complete Guide with Examples

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