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

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Specifies a term in a definition list.

HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5

HTML Syntax

<dt
   class = classname
   id = value
   style = css_style_rules
   title = text
>

The DT element can only be used within a DL element. Usually a term to be defined in the DT tag is followed by a DD element, that contains the definition description of the term.

This element is a block element.

A <dt> element’s end tag can be omitted if the <dt> element is immediately followed by another <dt> element or a <dd> element.

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

The following shows how the DT 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

DD   DL   Using Lists in HTML