Home > Abakada: Back to Basics > Language References > HTML Elements > CAPTION Element

---

Specifies a caption for the <table> element.

HTML 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5

HTML Syntax

<table>
   <caption> ... </caption>
   ...
</table>

NOTE: A <caption> element’s end tag can be omitted if the caption element is not immediately followed by whitespace or a comment.

The <caption> element specifies the caption or title of a <table> element.

When present, the <caption> element’s text should describe the nature of the table.

The caption element is only permitted immediately after the table start tag.

A table element may contain only one caption element.

The <caption> element has no attribute of its own, but supports global attributes common to all HTML elements.

The following shows how the <caption> element may be used.

<table>
<caption>This caption will appear above the table.</caption>
   ...
</table>

This caption will appear above the table.

Header 1	Header 2	Header 3
Cell 1	Cell 2	Cell 3
Cell 4	Cell 5	Cell 6

A table caption by default is center-aligned at the top of a table. The CSS properties text-align and caption-side can be used, though, to align and position the caption.

This example illustrates the concept.

 Show me 

• 4.9.2 The caption element

FIGCAPTION   TABLE