Summary
The HTML element emphasis <em> marks text that has stress emphasis. The <em>
element can be nested, with each level of nesting indicating a greater degree of emphasis.
<cite>
element to mark the title of a work (book, play, song, etc.); it is also typically styled with italic type, but carries different meaning. Use the <strong>
element to mark text that has greater importance than surrounding text.Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content |
---|---|
Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parent elements | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
DOM interface | HTMLElement Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element. |
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Example
The <em>
element is often used to indicate an implicit or explicit contrast.
<p> In HTML 5, what was previously called <em>block-level</em> content is now called <em>flow</em> content. </p>
Result
In HTML 5, what was previously called block-level content is now called flow content.
<i> vs. <em>
It is often confusing to new developers why there are so many elements to express emphasis on some text. <i> and <em> are perhaps one of the most common. Why use <em></em>
vs <i></i>
? They produce exactly the same result, right?
Not exactly. The visual result is, by default, the same - both tags render its content in italics. But the semantic meaning is different. The <em>
tag represents stress emphasis of its contents, while the <i> tag represents text that is set off from the normal prose, such as the name of a movie or book, a foreign word, or when the text refers to the definition of a word instead of representing its semantic meaning.
An example for <em>
could be: "Just do it already!", or: "We had to do something about it". A person or software reading the text would pronounce the words in italics with an emphasis.
An example for <i>
could be: "The Queen Mary sailed last night". Here, there is no added emphasis or importance on the word "Queen Mary". It is merely indicated that the object in question is not a queen named Mary, but a ship named Queen Mary . Another example for <i>
could be: "The word the is an article".
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of '<em>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
HTML5 The definition of '<em>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<em>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
Feature | Chrome | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari (WebKit) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | 1.0 | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
Feature | Android | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Phone | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |