index.md

---

title: '<cite>: The Citation element'
slug: Web/HTML/Element/cite
page-type: html-element
browser-compat: html.elements.cite

---

{{HTMLSidebar}}

The <cite> HTML element is used to mark up the title of a cited creative work. The reference may be in an abbreviated form according to context-appropriate conventions related to citation metadata.

{{EmbedInteractiveExample("pages/tabbed/cite.html", "tabbed-standard")}}

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Usage notes

In the context of the <cite> element, a creative work that might be cited could be, for example, one of the following:

• A book

• A research paper

• An essay

• A poem

• A musical score

• A song

• A play or film script

• A film

• A television show

• A game

• A sculpture

• A painting

• A theatrical production

• A play

• An opera

• A musical

• An exhibition

• A legal case report

• A computer program

• A web site

• A web page

• A blog post or comment

• A forum post or comment

• A tweet

• A Facebook post

• A written or oral statement

• And so forth.

To include a reference to the source of quoted material which is contained within a {{HTMLElement("blockquote")}} or {{HTMLElement("q")}} element, use the {{htmlattrxref("cite", "blockquote")}} attribute on the element.

Typically, browsers style the contents of a <cite> element in italics by default. To avoid this, apply the CSS {{cssxref("font-style")}} property to the <cite> element.

Example

<p>More information can be found in <cite>[ISO-0000]</cite>.</p>

The HTML above outputs:

{{EmbedLiveSample("Example", 640, 80)}}

Technical summary

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	{{no_tag_omission}}
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	{{domxref("HTMLElement")}} Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the {{domxref("HTMLSpanElement")}} interface for this element.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• The element {{HTMLElement("blockquote")}} for long quotations.

• The element {{HTMLElement("q")}} for inline quotations and the cite attribute.