Syntax
<abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr>Examples
Basic Abbreviation
Marking up a common acronym with its full meaning.
<p><abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> is the standard markup language for the web.</p>Multiple Abbreviations in Context
Using abbr for several technical terms in a paragraph.
<p>Modern web development relies on <abbr title="Application Programming Interface">API</abbr>s that communicate using <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>.</p>Styled Abbreviation
Giving the abbreviation a visual hint that it has a tooltip.
<abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets" style="text-decoration: underline dotted; cursor: help;">CSS</abbr>Attributes
- title (string): The full expansion of the abbreviation, shown as a tooltip
Best practices
- Always include the title attribute with the full expansion — without it, abbr provides little value
- Expand the abbreviation in the title on its first meaningful use in a document
- Do not overuse abbr for terms that are already universally understood, like "HTML" itself in a web dev context
- Consider that hover-only tooltips are not accessible on touch devices, so do not rely on abbr as the only place an important term is explained
At a glance
- Purpose
- Structure and meaning for web content
- File extension
- .html · .htm
- Runs in
- Web browsers
- Usually used with
- CSS and JavaScript
Specifications & further reading
Related HTML documentation
<span>
The <span> element is an inline container used to group and style specific portions of text or inline elements. Unlike <div>, which is block-level, <span> doesn't break the flow of content. It's perfect for applying styles or manipulating specific words or phrases within a paragraph without affecting the surrounding content.<h1> - <h6>
The heading elements <h1> through <h6> represent six levels of section headings, with <h1> being the most important and <h6> the least. Headings create a document outline that both sighted users and assistive technologies rely on to understand and navigate page structure. Search engines also use heading hierarchy to interpret content relevance. Each page should typically have exactly one <h1> describing its main topic, with subsequent headings nested logically to reflect the content hierarchy.<p>
The <p> element represents a paragraph of text — one of the most fundamental building blocks of written content on the web. Browsers automatically add margin above and below paragraphs to visually separate them. The <p> element cannot contain other block-level elements like <div> or headings, only inline content and text. It is a block-level element, meaning it always starts on a new line.Text Formatting: <strong>, <em>, <b>, <i>, <mark>, <small>
HTML provides several inline elements for formatting text with semantic and visual meaning. <strong> indicates strong importance (typically rendered bold), and <em> indicates stress emphasis (typically rendered italic) — both carry semantic weight that screen readers can announce. <b> and <i> are their purely visual counterparts, used when bold/italic styling is needed without implying importance or emphasis. <mark> highlights text as relevant to the current context, and <small> represents side comments like fine print or disclaimers.
The <span> element is an inline container used to group and style specific portions of text or inline elements. Unlike <div>, which is block-level, <span> doesn't break the flow of content. It's perfect for applying styles or manipulating specific words or phrases within a paragraph without affecting the surrounding content.<h1> - <h6>
The heading elements <h1> through <h6> represent six levels of section headings, with <h1> being the most important and <h6> the least. Headings create a document outline that both sighted users and assistive technologies rely on to understand and navigate page structure. Search engines also use heading hierarchy to interpret content relevance. Each page should typically have exactly one <h1> describing its main topic, with subsequent headings nested logically to reflect the content hierarchy.<p>
The <p> element represents a paragraph of text — one of the most fundamental building blocks of written content on the web. Browsers automatically add margin above and below paragraphs to visually separate them. The <p> element cannot contain other block-level elements like <div> or headings, only inline content and text. It is a block-level element, meaning it always starts on a new line.Text Formatting: <strong>, <em>, <b>, <i>, <mark>, <small>
HTML provides several inline elements for formatting text with semantic and visual meaning. <strong> indicates strong importance (typically rendered bold), and <em> indicates stress emphasis (typically rendered italic) — both carry semantic weight that screen readers can announce. <b> and <i> are their purely visual counterparts, used when bold/italic styling is needed without implying importance or emphasis. <mark> highlights text as relevant to the current context, and <small> represents side comments like fine print or disclaimers.