This page lists all the HTML elements, which are created using tags. They are grouped by function to help you find what you have in mind easily. An alphabetical list of all elements is provided in the sidebar on every element's page as well as this one.
For more information about the basics of HTML elements and attributes, see the section on elements in the Introduction to HTML article.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<html> | The <html> represents the root (top-level element) of an HTML document, so it is also referred to as the root element. All other elements must be descendants of this element. |
Metadata contains information about the page. This includes information about styles, scripts and data to help software (search engines, browsers, etc.) use and render the page. Metadata for styles and scripts may be defined in the page or link to another file that has the information.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<head> | The <head> provides general information (metadata) about the document, including its title and links to its scripts and style sheets. |
<link> | The <link> specifies relationships between the current document and an external resource. This element is most commonly used to link to stylesheets, but is also used to establish site icons (both "favicon" style icons and mobile home screen/app icons) among other things. |
<meta> | The <meta> represents metadata that cannot be represented by other HTML meta-related elements, like <base>, <link>, <script>, <style> or <title>. |
<style> | The <style> contains style information for a document, or part of a document. |
<title> | The HTML Title element (<title>) defines the document's title that is shown in a browser's title bar or a page's tab. |
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<body> | The <body> represents the content of an HTML document. There can be only one <body> element in a document. |
Content sectioning elements allow you to organize the document content into logical pieces. Use the sectioning elements to create a broad outline for your page content, including header and footer navigation, and heading elements to identify sections of content.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<address> | The <address> indicates that the enclosed HTML provides contact information for a person or people, or for an organization. |
<article> | The <article> represents a self-contained composition in a document, page, application, or site, which is intended to be independently distributable or reusable (e.g., in syndication). Examples include: a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, or a blog entry. |
<aside> | The <aside> represents a portion of a document whose content is only indirectly related to the document's main content. |
<footer> | The<footer> represents a footer for its nearest sectioning content or sectioning root element. A footer typically contains information about the author of the section, copyright data or links to related documents. |
<header> | The <header> represents introductory content, typically a group of introductory or navigational aids. It may contain some heading elements but also other elements like a logo, a search form, an author name, and so on. |
<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>
| The HTML <h1>–<h6> elements represent six levels of section headings. <h1> is the highest section level and <h6> is the lowest. |
<hgroup> | The <hgroup> represents a multi-level heading for a section of a document. It groups a set of <h1>–<h6> elements. |
<main> | The <main> represents the dominant content of the <body> of a document. The main content area consists of content that is directly related to or expands upon the central topic of a document, or the central functionality of an application. |
<nav> | The <nav> represents a section of a page whose purpose is to provide navigation links, either within the current document or to other documents. Common examples of navigation sections are menus, tables of contents, and indexes. |
<section> | The <section> represents a standalone section — which doesn't have a more specific semantic element to represent it — contained within an HTML document. |
Use HTML text content elements to organize blocks or sections of content placed between the opening <body> and closing </body> tags. Important for accessibility and SEO, these elements identify the purpose or structure of that content.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<blockquote> | The <blockquote> (or HTML Block Quotation Element) indicates that the enclosed text is an extended quotation. Usually, this is rendered visually by indentation (see Notes for how to change it). A URL for the source of the quotation may be given using the cite attribute, while a text representation of the source can be given using the <cite> element. |
<dd> | The <dd> provides the details about or the definition of the preceding term (<dt>) in a description list (<dl>). |
<dir> | The obsolete HTML Directory element (<dir>) is used as a container for a directory of files and/or folders, potentially with styles and icons applied by the user agent. |
<div> | The HTML Content Division element (<div>) is the generic container for flow content. It has no effect on the content or layout until styled using CSS. |
<dl> | The <dl>element represents a description list.The element encloses a list of groups of terms (specified using the <dt> element) and descriptions (provided by <dd> elements). Common uses for this element are to implement a glossary or to display metadata (a list of key-value pairs). |
<dt> | The <dt> specifies a term in a description or definition list, and as such must be used inside a <dl> element. |
<figcaption> | The <figcaption> represents a caption or legend for the rest of the contents its parent <figure> element, if any. |
<figure> | The <figure> represents self-contained content, frequently with a caption (<figcaption>), and is typically referenced as a single unit. |
<hr> | The <hr> represents a thematic break between paragraph-level elements: for example, a change of scene in a story, or a shift of topic with a section. |
<li> | The <li> is used to represent an item in a list. It must be contained in a parent element: an ordered list (<ol>), an unordered list (<ul>), or a menu (<menu>). In menus and unordered lists, list items are usually displayed using bullet points. In ordered lists, they are usually displayed with an ascending counter on the left, such as a number or letter. |
<main> | The <main> represents the dominant content of the <body> of a document. The main content area consists of content that is directly related to or expands upon the central topic of a document, or the central functionality of an application. |
<ol> | The <ol> represents an ordered list of items, typically rendered as a numbered list. |
<p> | The <p> represents a paragraph. |
<pre> | The <pre> represents preformatted text which is to be presented exactly as written in the HTML file. |
<ul> | The<ul> represents an unordered list of items, typically rendered as a bulleted list. |
Use the HTML inline text semantic to define the meaning, structure, or style of a word, line, or any arbitrary piece of text.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<a> | The <a> (or anchor element) creates a hyperlink to other web pages, files, locations within the same page, email addresses, or any other URL. |
<abbr> | The HTML Abbreviation element (<abbr>) represents an abbreviation or acronym; the optional title attribute can provide an expansion or description for the abbreviation. |
<b> | The HTML Bring Attention To element (<b>) is used to draw the reader's attention to the element's contents, which are not otherwise granted special importance. |
<bdi> | The HTML Bidirectional Isolate element (<bdi>) tells the browser's bidirectional algorithm to treat the text it contains in isolation from its surrounding text. |
<bdo> | The HTML Bidirectional Text Override element (<bdo>) overrides the current directionality of text, so that the text within is rendered in a different direction. |
<br> | The <br> produces a line break in text (carriage-return). It is useful for writing a poem or an address, where the division of lines is significant. |
<cite> | The HTML Citation element (<cite>) is used to describe a reference to a cited creative work, and must include either the title or author or the URL of that work. |
<code> | The <code> displays its contents styled in a fashion intended to indicate that the text is a short fragment of computer code. |
<data> | The <data> links a given content with a machine-readable translation. If the content is time- or date-related, the <time> element must be used. |
<dfn> | The HTML Definition element (<dfn>) is used to indicate the term being defined within the context of a definition phrase or sentence. |
<em> | The <em> marks text that has stress emphasis. The <em> element can be nested, with each level of nesting indicating a greater degree of emphasis. |
<i> | The <i> represents a range of text that is set off from the normal text for some reason. Some examples include technical terms, foreign language phrases, or fictional character thoughts. It is typically displayed in italic type. |
<kbd> | The HTML Keyboard Input element (<kbd>) represents a span of inline text denoting textual user input from a keyboard, voice input, or any other text entry device. |
<mark> | The HTML Mark Text element (<mark>) represents text which is marked or highlighted for reference or notation purposes, due to the marked passage's relevance or importance in the enclosing context. |
<q> | The <q> indicates that the enclosed text is a short inline quotation. Most modern browsers implement this by surrounding the text in quotation marks. |
<rb> | The <rb> is used to delimit the base text component of a <ruby> annotation, i.e. the text that is being annotated. |
<rp> | The <rp> is used to provide fall-back parentheses for browsers that do not support display of ruby annotations using the <ruby> element. |
<rt> | The <rt> specifies the ruby text component of a ruby annotation, which is used to provide pronunciation, translation, or transliteration information for East Asian typography. The <rt> element must always be contained within a <ruby> element. |
<rtc> | The <rtc> embraces semantic annotations of characters presented in a ruby of <rb> elements used inside of <ruby> element. <rb> elements can have both pronunciation (<rt>) and semantic (<rtc>) annotations. |
<ruby> | The <ruby> represents a ruby annotation. Ruby annotations are for showing pronunciation of East Asian characters. |
<s> | The <s> renders text with a strikethrough, or a line through it. Use the <s> element to represent things that are no longer relevant or no longer accurate. However, <s> is not appropriate when indicating document edits; for that, use the <del> and <ins> elements, as appropriate. |
<samp> | The HTML Sample Element (<samp>) is used to enclose inline text which represents sample (or quoted) output from a computer program. |
<small> | The <small> element makes the text font size one size smaller (for example, from large to medium, or from small to x-small) down to the browser's minimum font size. In HTML5, this element is repurposed to represent side-comments and small print, including copyright and legal text, independent of its styled presentation. |
<span> | The <span> is a generic inline container for phrasing content, which does not inherently represent anything. It can be used to group elements for styling purposes (using the class or id attributes), or because they share attribute values, such as lang. |
<strong> | The HTML Strong Importance Element (<strong> indicates that its contents have strong importance, seriousness, or urgency. Browsers typically render the contents in bold type. |
<sub> | The HTML Subscript element (<sub>) specifies inline text which should be displayed as subscript for solely typographical reasons. |
<sup> | The HTML Superscript element (<sup>) specifies inline text which is to be displayed as superscript for solely typographical reasons. |
<time> | The <time> represents a specific period in time. It may include the datetime attribute to translate dates into machine-readable format, allowing for better search engine results or custom features such as reminders. |
<tt> | The obsolete HTML Teletype Text element (<tt>) creates inline text which is presented using the user agent's default monospace font face. |
<u> | The HTML Unarticulated Annotation element (<u>) represents a span of inline text which should be rendered in a way that indicates that it has a non-textual annotation. |
<var> | The HTML Variable element (<var>) represents the name of a variable in a mathematical expression or a programming context. |
<wbr> | The <wbr> represents a word break opportunity—a position within text where the browser may optionally break a line, though its line-breaking rules would not otherwise create a break at that location. |
HTML supports various multimedia resources such as images, audio, and video.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<area> | The <area> defines a hot-spot region on an image, and optionally associates it with a hypertext link. This element is used only within a <map> element. |
<audio> | The <audio> is used to embed sound content in documents. It may contain one or more audio sources, represented using the src attribute or the <source> element: the browser will choose the most suitable one. It can also be the destination for streamed media, using a MediaStream. |
<img> | The <img> embeds an image into the document. It is a replaced element. |
<map> | The <map> is used with <area> elements to define an image map (a clickable link area). |
<track> | The <track> is used as a child of the media elements <audio> and <video>. It lets you specify timed text tracks (or time-based data), for example to automatically handle subtitles. The tracks are formatted in WebVTT format (.vtt files) — Web Video Text Tracks or Timed Text Markup Language (TTML).
|
<video> | The HTML Video element (<video>) embeds a media player which supports video playback into the document. |
In addition to regular multimedia content, HTML can include a variety of other content, even if it's not always easy to interact with.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<applet> | The obsolete HTML Applet Element (<applet>) embeds a Java applet into the document; this element has been deprecated in favor of <object>. |
<embed> | The <embed> embeds external content at the specified point in the document. This content is provided by an external application or other source of interactive content such as a browser plug-in. |
<iframe> | The <iframe> represents a nested browsing context, effectively embedding another HTML page into the current page. |
<noembed> | The <noembed> element is an obsolete, non-standard way to provide alternative, or "fallback", content for browsers that do not support the <embed> element or do not support the type of embedded content an author wishes to use. |
<object> | The <object> represents an external resource, which can be treated as an image, a nested browsing context, or a resource to be handled by a plugin. |
<param> | The <param> defines parameters for an <object> element. |
<picture> | The <picture> contains zero or more <source> elements and one <img> element to provide versions of an image for different display/device scenarios. |
<source> | The <source> specifies multiple media resources for the <picture>, the <audio> element, or the <video> element. It is an empty element. It is commonly used to serve the same media content in multiple formats supported by different browsers. |
In order to create dynamic content and Web applications, HTML supports the use of scripting languages, most prominently JavaScript. Certain elements support this capability.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<canvas> | Use the <canvas> with either the canvas scripting API or the WebGL API to draw graphics and animations. |
<noscript> | The <noscript> defines a section of HTML to be inserted if a script type on the page is unsupported or if scripting is currently turned off in the browser. |
<script> | The <script> is used to embed or reference executable code; this is typically used to embed or refer to JavaScript code. |
These elements let you provide indications that specific parts of the text have been altered.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<del> | The <del> represents a range of text that has been deleted from a document. |
<ins> | The <ins> represents a range of text that has been added to a document. |
The elements here are used to create and handle tabular data.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<caption> | The HTML Table Caption element (<caption>) specifies the caption (or title) of a table, and if used is always the first child of a <table>. |
<col> | The <col> defines a column within a table and is used for defining common semantics on all common cells. It is generally found within a <colgroup> element. |
<colgroup> | The <colgroup> defines a group of columns within a table. |
<table> | The <table> represents tabular data — that is, information presented in a two-dimensional table comprised of rows and columns of cells containing data. |
<tbody> | The HTML Table Body element (<tbody>) encapsulates a set of table row (<tr> elements), indicating that they comprise the body of the table (<table>). |
<td> | The <td> defines a cell of a table that contains data. It participates in the table model. |
<tfoot> | The <tfoot> defines a set of rows summarizing the columns of the table. |
<th> | The <th> defines a cell as header of a group of table cells. The exact nature of this group is defined by the scope and headers attributes. |
<thead> | The <thead> defines a set of rows defining the head of the columns of the table. |
<tr> | The <tr> defines a row of cells in a table. The row's cells can then be established using a mix of <td> (data cell) and <th> (header cell) elements.The HTML <tr> element specifies that the markup contained inside the <tr> block comprises one row of a table, inside which the <th> and <td> elements create header and data cells, respectively, within the row. |
HTML provides a number of elements which can be used together to create forms which the user can fill out and submit to the Web site or application. There's a great deal of further information about this available in the HTML forms guide.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<button> | The <button> represents a clickable button, which can be used in forms or anywhere in a document that needs simple, standard button functionality. |
<datalist> | The <datalist> contains a set of <option> elements that represent the values available for other controls. |
<fieldset> | The <fieldset> is used to group several controls as well as labels (<label>) within a web form. |
<form> | The <form> represents a document section that contains interactive controls for submitting information to a web server. |
<input> | The <input> is used to create interactive controls for web-based forms in order to accept data from the user; a wide variety of types of input data and control widgets are available, depending on the device and user agent. |
<label> | The <label> represents a caption for an item in a user interface. |
<legend> | The <legend> represents a caption for the content of its parent <fieldset>. |
<meter> | The <meter> represents either a scalar value within a known range or a fractional value. |
<optgroup> | The <optgroup> creates a grouping of options within a <select> element. |
<option> | The <option> is used to define an item contained in a <select>, an <optgroup>, or a <datalist> element. As such, <option> can represent menu items in popups and other lists of items in an HTML document. |
<output> | The HTML Output element (<output>) is a container element into which a site or app can inject the results of a calculation or the outcome of a user action. |
<progress> | The <progress> displays an indicator showing the completion progress of a task, typically displayed as a progress bar. |
<select> | The <select> represents a control that provides a menu of options |
<textarea> | The <textarea> represents a multi-line plain-text editing control, useful when you want to allow users to enter a sizeable amount of free-form text, for example a comment on a review or feedback form. |
HTML offers a selection of elements which help to create interactive user interface objects.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<details> | The <details> creates a disclosure widget in which information is visible only when the widget is toggled into an "open" state. |
<dialog> | The <dialog> represents a dialog box or other interactive component, such as an inspector or window. |
<menu> | The <menu> represents a group of commands that a user can perform or activate. This includes both list menus, which might appear across the top of a screen, as well as context menus, such as those that might appear underneath a button after it has been clicked. |
<menuitem> | The <menuitem> represents a command that a user is able to invoke through a popup menu. This includes context menus, as well as menus that might be attached to a menu button. |
<summary> | The HTML Disclosure Summary element (<summary>) element specifies a summary, caption, or legend for a <details> element's disclosure box. |
Web Components is an HTML-related technology which makes it possible to, essentially, create and use custom elements as if it were regular HTML. In addition, you can create custom versions of standard HTML elements.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<content> | The <content>—an obsolete part of the Web Components suite of technologies—was used inside of Shadow DOM as an insertion point, and wasn't meant to be used in ordinary HTML. |
<element> | The obsolete <element> was part of the Web Components specification; it was intended to be used to define new custom DOM elements. |
<shadow> | The <shadow>—an obsolete part of the Web Components technology suite—was intended to be used as a shadow DOM insertion point. |
<slot> | The <slot>—part of the Web Components technology suite—is a placeholder inside a web component that you can fill with your own markup, which lets you create separate DOM trees and present them together. |
<template> | The <template> is a mechanism for holding client-side content that is not to be rendered when a page is loaded but may subsequently be instantiated during runtime using JavaScript. |
Warning: These are old HTML elements which are deprecated and should not be used. You should never use them in new projects, and should replace them in old projects as soon as you can. They are listed here for informational purposes only.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
<acronym> | The HTML Acronym Element (<acronym>) allows authors to clearly indicate a sequence of characters that compose an acronym or abbreviation for a word. This element has been removed in HTML5. Use <abbr> element. |
<applet> | The obsolete HTML Applet Element (<applet>) embeds a Java applet into the document; this element has been deprecated in favor of <object>. |
<basefont> | The obsolete HTML Base Font element (<basefont>) sets a default font face, size, and color for the other elements which are descended from its parent element. |
<bgsound> | The Internet Explorer only HTML Background Sound element (<bgsound>) sets up a sound file to play in the background while the page is used; use <audio> instead. |
<big> | The obsolete HTML Big Element (<big>) renders the enclosed text at a font size one level larger than the surrounding text (medium becomes large, for example). |
<blink> | The HTML Blink Element (<blink>) is a non-standard element which causes the enclosed text to flash slowly. |
<center> | The obsolete HTML Center Element (<center>) is a block-level element that displays its block-level or inline contents centered horizontally within its containing element. |
<command> | The HTML Command element (<command>) represents a command which the user can invoke. Commands are often used as part of a context menu or toolbar. |
<content> | The <content>—an obsolete part of the Web Components suite of technologies—was used inside of Shadow DOM as an insertion point, and wasn't meant to be used in ordinary HTML. |
<dir> | The obsolete HTML Directory element (<dir>) is used as a container for a directory of files and/or folders, potentially with styles and icons applied by the user agent. |
<element> | The obsolete <element> was part of the Web Components specification; it was intended to be used to define new custom DOM elements. |
<font> | The HTML Font Element (<font>) defines the font size, color and face for its content. |
<frame> |
<frame> is an HTML element which defines a particular area in which another HTML document can be displayed. A frame should be used within a <frameset>. |
<frameset> |
<frameset> is an HTML element which is used to contain <frame> elements. |
<image> | The obsolete <image> is an obsolete remnant of an ancient version of HTML lost in the mists of time; use the standard <img> element instead. |
<isindex> |
<isindex> is an obsolete HTML element that puts a text field in a page for querying the document. |
<keygen> | The HTML <keygen> element exists to facilitate generation of key material, and submission of the public key as part of an HTML form. This mechanism is designed for use with Web-based certificate management systems. It is expected that the <keygen> element will be used in an HTML form along with other information needed to construct a certificate request, and that the result of the process will be a signed certificate. |
<listing> | The HTML Listing Element (<listing>) renders text between the start and end tags without interpreting the HTML in between and using a monospaced font. The HTML 2 standard recommended that lines shouldn't be broken when not greater than 132 characters. |
<marquee> | The HTML <marquee> element is used to insert a scrolling area of text. You can control what happens when the text reaches the edges of its content area using its attributes. |
<menuitem> | The <menuitem> represents a command that a user is able to invoke through a popup menu. This includes context menus, as well as menus that might be attached to a menu button. |
<multicol> | The HTML Multi-Column Layout element (<multicol>) was an experimental element designed to allow multi-column layouts and must not be used. |
<nextid> |
<nextid> is an obsolete HTML element that served to enable the NeXT web designing tool to generate automatic NAME labels for its anchors. |
<nobr> | The non-standard, obsolete HTML <nobr> element prevents the text it contains from automatically wrapping across multiple lines, potentially resulting in the user having to scroll horizontally to see the entire width of the text. |
<noembed> | The <noembed> element is an obsolete, non-standard way to provide alternative, or "fallback", content for browsers that do not support the <embed> element or do not support the type of embedded content an author wishes to use. |
<noframes> | The obsolete HTML No Frames or frame fallback element, <noframes>, provides content to be presented in browsers that don't support (or have disabled support for) the <frame> element. |
<plaintext> | The HTML Plaintext Element (<plaintext>) renders everything following the start tag as raw text, ignoring any following HTML. |
<shadow> | The <shadow>—an obsolete part of the Web Components technology suite—was intended to be used as a shadow DOM insertion point. |
<spacer> |
<spacer> is an obsolete HTML element which allowed insertion of empty spaces on pages. It was devised by Netscape to accomplish the same effect as a single-pixel layout image, which was something web designers used to use to add white spaces to web pages without actually using an image. However, <spacer> no longer supported by any major browser and the same effects can now be achieved using simple CSS. |
<strike> | The <strike> (or HTML Strikethrough Element) places a strikethrough (horizontal line) over text. |
<tt> | The obsolete HTML Teletype Text element (<tt>) creates inline text which is presented using the user agent's default monospace font face. |
<xmp> | The HTML Example Element (<xmp>) renders text between the start and end tags without interpreting the HTML in between and using a monospaced font. The HTML2 specification recommended that it should be rendered wide enough to allow 80 characters per line. |
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