<span> HTML content span element
Baseline
Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
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 <div> element, but <div> 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: red;
}
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Example
>Example 1
HTML
html
<p><span>Some text</span></p>
Result
Example 2
HTML
html
<li>
<span>
<a href="portfolio.html" target="_blank">See my portfolio</a>
</span>
</li>
CSS
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 accepts phrasing content, or any element that accepts flow content. |
| Implicit ARIA role | No corresponding role |
| Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
| DOM interface |
HTMLSpanElement
|
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| HTML> # the-span-element> |
Browser compatibility
See also
- HTML
<div>element