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

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Indicates a definition description in a definition list.

HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5

HTML Syntax

<dl>
   <dt> ...
      <dd> ...
   ...
</dl>

The <dd> element provides the description, definition, or value for the preceding definition term ( <dt> element ) in a description list ( <dl> element ).

The dd element can only be used within a <dl> element, which declares the start of a definition list. It follows immediately after a <dt> element, which in turn indicates a definition term.

This element is a block element, and the definition description is usually indented from the definition list.

A <dd> element’s end tag can be omitted if the <dd> element is immediately followed by another <dd> element or a <dt> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

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

The following shows how the dd element may be used.

<dl>
   <dt>W3C
      <dd>World Wide Web Consortium
   <dt>HTML
      <dd>HyperText Markup Language
   <dt>CSS
      <dd>Cascading Style Sheets
</dl>

which would render on a Web page as

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium

HTML

HyperText Markup Language

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets

• 4.4.11 The dd element

DL   DT   Using Lists in HTML