Revision 782607 of <cite>

<h2 id="Summary">Summary</h2>

<p>The&nbsp;<em>HTML Citation Element</em>&nbsp;(<strong>&lt;cite&gt;</strong>) represents a reference to a creative work. It must include the title of a work or a URL reference,&nbsp;which may be in an abbreviated form according to the conventions used for the addition of citation metadata.</p>

<div class="note">
<p><strong>Usage Notes:</strong></p>

<ul>
 <li>A creative work may include a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theater 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 written or oral statement, etc.</li>
 <li>Use the {{htmlattrxref("cite", "blockquote")}} attribute on a {{HTMLElement("blockquote")}} or {{HTMLElement("q")}} element to reference an online resource for a source.</li>
</ul>
</div>

<ul class="htmlelt">
 <li><dfn><a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Content_categories" title="HTML/Content_categories">Content categories</a></dfn> <a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Content_categories#Flow_content" title="HTML/Content categories#Flow content">Flow content</a>, <a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content" title="HTML/Content categories#Phrasing content">phrasing content</a>, palpable content.</li>
 <li><dfn>Permitted content</dfn> <a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content" title="HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content">Phrasing content</a>.</li>
 <li><dfn>Tag omission</dfn> {{no_tag_omission}}</li>
 <li><dfn>Permitted parent elements</dfn> Any element that accepts <a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content" title="HTML/Content_categories#Phrasing_content">phrasing content</a>.</li>
 <li><dfn>DOM interface</dfn> {{domxref("HTMLElement")}} Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the {{domxref("HTMLSpanElement")}} interface for this element.</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="Attributes">Attributes</h2>

<p><span style="line-height: 21px;">This element only includes the&nbsp;</span><a href="/en-US/docs/HTML/Global_attributes" style="line-height: 21px;" title="HTML/Global attributes">global attributes</a>.</p>

<h2 id="Example">Example</h2>

<pre class="brush: html">
More information can be found in &lt;cite&gt;[ISO-0000]&lt;/cite&gt;.</pre>

<p>The HTML above outputs:</p>

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

<h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2>

<p>To avoid the default italic style from being used for the &lt;cite&gt; element use the <a href="/en-US/docs/CSS" title="CSS">CSS</a> {{cssxref("font-style")}} property.</p>

<h2 id="Specifications" name="Specifications">Specifications</h2>

<table class="standard-table">
 <thead>
  <tr>
   <th scope="col">Specification</th>
   <th scope="col">Status</th>
   <th scope="col">Comment</th>
  </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML WHATWG', 'text-level-semantics.html#the-cite-element', '&lt;cite&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML WHATWG')}}</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML5 W3C', 'text-level-semantics.html#the-cite-element', '&lt;cite&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML5 W3C')}}</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>{{SpecName('HTML4.01', 'struct/text.html#h-9.2.1', '&lt;cite&gt;')}}</td>
   <td>{{Spec2('HTML4.01')}}</td>
   <td>&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>

<div>{{CompatibilityTable}}</div>

<div id="compat-desktop">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Chrome</th>
   <th>Firefox (Gecko)</th>
   <th>Internet Explorer</th>
   <th>Opera</th>
   <th>Safari</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Basic support</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoDesktop("1.0")}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div id="compat-mobile">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Android</th>
   <th>Firefox Mobile (Gecko)</th>
   <th>IE Mobile</th>
   <th>Opera Mobile</th>
   <th>Safari Mobile</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>Basic support</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoMobile("1.0")}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<h2 id="See_also">See also</h2>

<ul>
 <li>The element {{HTMLElement("blockquote")}} for long quotations.</li>
 <li>The element {{HTMLElement("q")}} for inline quotations.</li>
</ul>

<div>{{HTMLRef}}</div>