index.md

---

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

---

{{HTMLSidebar}}

The <dt> HTML element specifies a term in a description or definition list, and as such must be used inside a {{HTMLElement("dl")}} element. It is usually followed by a {{HTMLElement("dd")}} element; however, multiple <dt> elements in a row indicate several terms that are all defined by the immediate next {{HTMLElement("dd")}} element.

The subsequent {{HTMLElement("dd")}} (Description Details) element provides the definition or other related text associated with the term specified using <dt>.

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

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Examples

For examples, see the examples provided for the <dl> element.

Technical summary

Content categories	None.
Permitted content	Flow content, but with no {{HTMLElement("header")}}, {{HTMLElement("footer")}}, sectioning content or heading content descendants.
Tag omission	The start tag is required. The end tag may be omitted if this element is immediately followed by another <dt> element or a {{HTMLElement("dd")}} element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
Permitted parents	A {{HTMLElement("dl")}} or (in {{Glossary("WHATWG")}} HTML, {{Glossary("W3C")}} HTML 5.2 and later) a {{HTMLElement("div")}} that is a child of a {{HTMLElement("dl")}}. This element can be used before a {{HTMLElement("dd")}} or another {{HTMLElement("dt")}} element.
Implicit ARIA role	term
Permitted ARIA roles	listitem
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

• {{HTMLElement("dl")}}

• {{HTMLElement("dd")}}