diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index 5a009bae64..2509e04ad2 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -334,6 +334,12 @@ function _wp_specialchars( $string, $quote_style = ENT_NOQUOTES, $charset = fals
 	// Handle double encoding ourselves
 	if ( !$double_encode ) {
 		$string = wp_specialchars_decode( $string, $_quote_style );
+
+		/* Critical */
+		// The previous line decodes &phrase; into &phrase;  We must guarantee that &phrase; is valid before proceeding.
+		$string = wp_kses_normalize_entities($string);
+
+		// Now proceed with custom double-encoding silliness
 		$string = preg_replace( '/&(#?x?[0-9a-z]+);/i', '|wp_entity|$1|/wp_entity|', $string );
 	}
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/kses.php b/wp-includes/kses.php
index b2f4748a32..eac8191a64 100644
--- a/wp-includes/kses.php
+++ b/wp-includes/kses.php
@@ -333,6 +333,255 @@ if (!CUSTOM_TAGS) {
 		//	'u' => array(),
 		//	'ul' => array(),
 	);
+
+	$allowedentitynames = array(
+		'nbsp',
+		'iexcl',
+		'cent',
+		'pound',
+		'curren',
+		'yen',
+		'brvbar',
+		'sect',
+		'uml',
+		'copy',
+		'ordf',
+		'laquo',
+		'not',
+		'shy',
+		'reg',
+		'macr',
+		'deg',
+		'plusmn',
+		'acute',
+		'micro',
+		'para',
+		'middot',
+		'cedil',
+		'ordm',
+		'raquo',
+		'iquest',
+		'Agrave',
+		'Aacute',
+		'Acirc',
+		'Atilde',
+		'Auml',
+		'Aring',
+		'AElig',
+		'Ccedil',
+		'Egrave',
+		'Eacute',
+		'Ecirc',
+		'Euml',
+		'Igrave',
+		'Iacute',
+		'Icirc',
+		'Iuml',
+		'ETH',
+		'Ntilde',
+		'Ograve',
+		'Oacute',
+		'Ocirc',
+		'Otilde',
+		'Ouml',
+		'times',
+		'Oslash',
+		'Ugrave',
+		'Uacute',
+		'Ucirc',
+		'Uuml',
+		'Yacute',
+		'THORN',
+		'szlig',
+		'agrave',
+		'aacute',
+		'acirc',
+		'atilde',
+		'auml',
+		'aring',
+		'aelig',
+		'ccedil',
+		'egrave',
+		'eacute',
+		'ecirc',
+		'euml',
+		'igrave',
+		'iacute',
+		'icirc',
+		'iuml',
+		'eth',
+		'ntilde',
+		'ograve',
+		'oacute',
+		'ocirc',
+		'otilde',
+		'ouml',
+		'divide',
+		'oslash',
+		'ugrave',
+		'uacute',
+		'ucirc',
+		'uuml',
+		'yacute',
+		'thorn',
+		'yuml',
+		'quot',
+		'amp',
+		'lt',
+		'gt',
+		'apos',
+		'OElig',
+		'oelig',
+		'Scaron',
+		'scaron',
+		'Yuml',
+		'circ',
+		'tilde',
+		'ensp',
+		'emsp',
+		'thinsp',
+		'zwnj',
+		'zwj',
+		'lrm',
+		'rlm',
+		'ndash',
+		'mdash',
+		'lsquo',
+		'rsquo',
+		'sbquo',
+		'ldquo',
+		'rdquo',
+		'bdquo',
+		'dagger',
+		'Dagger',
+		'permil',
+		'lsaquo',
+		'rsaquo',
+		'euro',
+		'fnof',
+		'Alpha',
+		'Beta',
+		'Gamma',
+		'Delta',
+		'Epsilon',
+		'Zeta',
+		'Eta',
+		'Theta',
+		'Iota',
+		'Kappa',
+		'Lambda',
+		'Mu',
+		'Nu',
+		'Xi',
+		'Omicron',
+		'Pi',
+		'Rho',
+		'Sigma',
+		'Tau',
+		'Upsilon',
+		'Phi',
+		'Chi',
+		'Psi',
+		'Omega',
+		'alpha',
+		'beta',
+		'gamma',
+		'delta',
+		'epsilon',
+		'zeta',
+		'eta',
+		'theta',
+		'iota',
+		'kappa',
+		'lambda',
+		'mu',
+		'nu',
+		'xi',
+		'omicron',
+		'pi',
+		'rho',
+		'sigmaf',
+		'sigma',
+		'tau',
+		'upsilon',
+		'phi',
+		'chi',
+		'psi',
+		'omega',
+		'thetasym',
+		'upsih',
+		'piv',
+		'bull',
+		'hellip',
+		'prime',
+		'Prime',
+		'oline',
+		'frasl',
+		'weierp',
+		'image',
+		'real',
+		'trade',
+		'alefsym',
+		'larr',
+		'uarr',
+		'rarr',
+		'darr',
+		'harr',
+		'crarr',
+		'lArr',
+		'uArr',
+		'rArr',
+		'dArr',
+		'hArr',
+		'forall',
+		'part',
+		'exist',
+		'empty',
+		'nabla',
+		'isin',
+		'notin',
+		'ni',
+		'prod',
+		'sum',
+		'minus',
+		'lowast',
+		'radic',
+		'prop',
+		'infin',
+		'ang',
+		'and',
+		'or',
+		'cap',
+		'cup',
+		'int',
+		'sim',
+		'cong',
+		'asymp',
+		'ne',
+		'equiv',
+		'le',
+		'ge',
+		'sub',
+		'sup',
+		'nsub',
+		'sube',
+		'supe',
+		'oplus',
+		'otimes',
+		'perp',
+		'sdot',
+		'lceil',
+		'rceil',
+		'lfloor',
+		'rfloor',
+		'lang',
+		'rang',
+		'loz',
+		'spades',
+		'clubs',
+		'hearts',
+		'diams'
+	);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -952,13 +1201,34 @@ function wp_kses_normalize_entities($string) {
 
 	# Change back the allowed entities in our entity whitelist
 
-	$string = preg_replace('/&([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]{0,19});/', '&\\1;', $string);
+	$string = preg_replace_callback('/&([A-Za-z]{2,8});/', 'wp_kses_named_entities', $string);
 	$string = preg_replace_callback('/&#0*([0-9]{1,5});/', 'wp_kses_normalize_entities2', $string);
 	$string = preg_replace_callback('/&#([Xx])0*(([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}){1,2});/', 'wp_kses_normalize_entities3', $string);
 
 	return $string;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Callback for wp_kses_normalize_entities() regular expression.
+ *
+ * This function only accepts valid named entity references, which are finite,
+ * case-sensitive, and highly scrutinized by HTML and XML validators.
+ *
+ * @since 3.0.0
+ *
+ * @param array $matches preg_replace_callback() matches array
+ * @return string Correctly encoded entity
+ */
+function wp_kses_named_entities($matches) {
+	global $allowedentitynames;
+
+	if ( empty($matches[1]) )
+		return '';
+
+	$i = $matches[1];
+	return ( ( ! in_array($i, $allowedentitynames) ) ? "&$i;" : "&$i;" );
+}
+
 /**
  * Callback for wp_kses_normalize_entities() regular expression.
  *
@@ -972,7 +1242,7 @@ function wp_kses_normalize_entities($string) {
  * @return string Correctly encoded entity
  */
 function wp_kses_normalize_entities2($matches) {
-	if ( ! isset($matches[1]) || empty($matches[1]) )
+	if ( empty($matches[1]) )
 		return '';
 
 	$i = $matches[1];
@@ -991,7 +1261,7 @@ function wp_kses_normalize_entities2($matches) {
  * @return string Correctly encoded entity
  */
 function wp_kses_normalize_entities3($matches) {
-	if ( ! isset($matches[2]) || empty($matches[2]) )
+	if ( empty($matches[2]) )
 		return '';
 
 	$hexchars = $matches[2];