: The Content Span element - HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN (original) (raw)

Baseline

Widely available

The <span> HTML element 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. It should be used only when no other semantic element is appropriate. <span> is very much like a

element, but
is a block-level element whereas a <span> is an inline-level element.

Try it

<p>
  Add the <span class="ingredient">basil</span>,
  <span class="ingredient">pine nuts</span> and
  <span class="ingredient">garlic</span> to a blender and blend into a paste.
</p>

<p>
  Gradually add the <span class="ingredient">olive oil</span> while running the
  blender slowly.
</p>

span.ingredient {
  color: #f00;
}

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Example

Example 1

HTML

<p><span>Some text</span></p>

Result

Example 2

HTML

<li>
  <span>
    <a href="portfolio.html" target="_blank">See my portfolio</a>
  </span>
</li>

CSS

li span {
  background: gold;
}

Result

Technical summary

Content categories Flow content,phrasing content.
Permitted content Phrasing content.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that acceptsphrasing content, or any element that acceptsflow content.
Implicit ARIA role No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles Any
DOM interface HTMLSpanElement

Specifications

Specification
HTML # the-span-element

Browser compatibility

See also