HTML <Dl> Tag

Definition

The <dl> tag is used to define a description list. This element encloses a group of description terms (<dt>) along with their definition description (<dd>).

Example

<dl>
    <dt>HTML</dt>
    <dd>HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language and is the standard markup 
    language used when creating web pages.</dd>
    <dt>HTML Comments</dt>
    <dd>HTML comments are comments in your source code inserted using a HTML 
    comment Tag.</dd>
</dl>

Usage

• The <dl> element encloses a group of one or more pairs of terms (<dt> elements) and definition descriptions (<dd elements>). These can either be direct children of the <dl> element or children of a <div> element child.
• Description lists can be used for various purposes, including names and definitions, question and answers, categories and topics, or any term-description pairs.
• A start and closing tag are both required.

Attributes

The <dl> element only supports the Global Attributes.

Best Practices

• You may want to wrap each pair of <dt> and <dd> tags in a <div> to aid styling. For example:

  <dl>
  <div class="styleMe">
    <dt>HTML</dt>
    <dd>HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language and is the standard markup 
    language used when creating web pages.</dd>
  </div>
  <div class="styleMe">
    <dt>HTML Comments</dt>
    <dd>HTML comments are comments in your source code inserted using a HTML 
    comment Tag.</dd>
  </div>
  </dl>

  Try it Yourself
• Try to make the nature of the relationship clear between list items in the group as some screen readers announce each <dl> content as a list.

Specification

• HTML Living Standard Specification
• HTML5 Specification

Browser Support

Desktop

Mobile