diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 14a87de1d..adae37a27 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -171,6 +171,7 @@ Features added
 * C++, add support for unions.
 * C++, add support for anonymous entities using names staring with ``@``.
   Fixes #3593 and #2683.
+* #5147: C++, add support for (most) character literals.
 * #3606: MathJax should be loaded with async attribute
 * html: Output ``canonical_url`` metadata if :confval:`html_baseurl` set (refs:
   #4193)
diff --git a/sphinx/domains/cpp.py b/sphinx/domains/cpp.py
index 7b2d3517e..adfc04c53 100644
--- a/sphinx/domains/cpp.py
+++ b/sphinx/domains/cpp.py
@@ -289,13 +289,26 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
             nested-name
 """
 
-# TODO: support hex, oct, etc. work
 _integer_literal_re = re.compile(r'[1-9][0-9]*')
 _octal_literal_re = re.compile(r'0[0-7]*')
 _hex_literal_re = re.compile(r'0[xX][0-7a-fA-F][0-7a-fA-F]*')
 _binary_literal_re = re.compile(r'0[bB][01][01]*')
 _integer_suffix_re = re.compile(r'')
 _float_literal_re = re.compile(r'[+-]?[0-9]*\.[0-9]+')
+_char_literal_re = re.compile(r'''(?x)
+    ((?:u8)|u|U|L)?
+    '(
+      (?:[^\\'])
+    | (\\(
+        (?:['"?\\abfnrtv])
+      | (?:[0-7]{1,3})
+      | (?:x[0-9a-fA-F]{2})
+      | (?:u[0-9a-fA-F]{4})
+      | (?:U[0-9a-fA-F]{8})
+      ))
+    )'
+''')
+
 _anon_identifier_re = re.compile(r'(@[a-zA-Z0-9_])[a-zA-Z0-9_]*\b')
 _identifier_re = re.compile(r'''(?x)
     (   # This 'extends' _anon_identifier_re with the ordinary identifiers,
@@ -522,6 +535,10 @@ _id_operator_unary_v2 = {
     '!': 'nt',
     '~': 'co'
 }
+_id_char_from_prefix = {
+    None: 'c', 'u8': 'c',
+    'u': 'Ds', 'U': 'Di', 'L': 'w'
+}  # type: Dict[unicode, unicode]
 # these are ordered by preceedence
 _expression_bin_ops = [
     ['||'],
@@ -780,6 +797,38 @@ class ASTNumberLiteral(ASTBase):
         signode.append(nodes.Text(txt, txt))
 
 
+class UnsupportedMultiCharacterCharLiteral(UnicodeMixin, Exception):
+    def __init__(self, decoded):
+        self.decoded = decoded
+
+
+class ASTCharLiteral(ASTBase):
+    def __init__(self, prefix, data):
+        # type: (unicode, unicode) -> None
+        self.prefix = prefix  # may be None when no prefix
+        self.data = data
+        assert prefix in _id_char_from_prefix
+        self.type = _id_char_from_prefix[prefix]
+        decoded = data.encode().decode('unicode-escape')
+        if len(decoded) == 1:
+            self.value = ord(decoded)
+        else:
+            raise UnsupportedMultiCharacterCharLiteral(decoded)
+
+    def _stringify(self, transform):
+        if self.prefix is None:
+            return "'" + self.data + "'"
+        else:
+            return self.prefix + "'" + self.data + "'"
+
+    def get_id(self, version):
+        return self.type + str(self.value)
+
+    def describe_signature(self, signode, mode, env, symbol):
+        txt = text_type(self)
+        signode.append(nodes.Text(txt, txt))
+
+
 class ASTStringLiteral(ASTBase):
     def __init__(self, data):
         # type: (unicode) -> None
@@ -4177,7 +4226,19 @@ class DefinitionParser(object):
         string = self._parse_string()
         if string is not None:
             return ASTStringLiteral(string)
-        # TODO: char lit
+
+        # character-literal
+        if self.match(_char_literal_re):
+            prefix = self.last_match.group(1)  # may be None when no prefix
+            data = self.last_match.group(2)
+            try:
+                return ASTCharLiteral(prefix, data)
+            except UnicodeDecodeError as e:
+                self.fail("Can not handle character literal. Internal error was: %s" % e)
+            except UnsupportedMultiCharacterCharLiteral as e:
+                self.fail("Can not handle character literal"
+                          " resulting in multiple decoded characters.")
+
         # TODO: user-defined lit
         return None
 
diff --git a/tests/test_domain_cpp.py b/tests/test_domain_cpp.py
index e13381817..06856cebc 100644
--- a/tests/test_domain_cpp.py
+++ b/tests/test_domain_cpp.py
@@ -127,7 +127,20 @@ def test_expressions():
         exprCheck(expr, 'L' + expr + 'E')
     exprCheck('"abc\\"cba"', 'LA8_KcE')  # string
     exprCheck('this', 'fpT')
-    # TODO: test the rest
+    # character literals
+    for p, t in [('', 'c'), ('u8', 'c'), ('u', 'Ds'), ('U', 'Di'), ('L', 'w')]:
+        exprCheck(p + "'a'", t + "97")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\n'", t + "10")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\012'", t + "10")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\0'", t + "0")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\x0a'", t + "10")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\x0A'", t + "10")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\u0a42'", t + "2626")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\u0A42'", t + "2626")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\U0001f34c'", t + "127820")
+        exprCheck(p + "'\\U0001F34C'", t + "127820")
+
+    # TODO: user-defined lit
     exprCheck('(... + Ns)', '(... + Ns)')
     exprCheck('(5)', 'L5E')
     exprCheck('C', '1C')