The Periodic Table of (X)HTML Elements

This table is an attempt to record and explain all elements ever included in officially-released HTML and XHTML specifications.

The Deprecation of (X)HTML Elements

The element tables are laid out in order of deprecation level.

Current:

These elements are in current use. They are completely valid as HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 Strict and XHTML 1.1, so these are the elements you want.

Deprecated:

These elements are being phased out of use. They are not valid as HTML 4.01 Strict, however, they are still valid as HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 Transitional or Frameset. Try not to use these elements; there are probably others way to achieve their effects.

Obsolete:

These are no longer part of the specification, and may not be supported by modern browsers. They are not valid as HTML 4.01 or XHTML of any kind. To put it shortly, these elements were chucked out, so don't use them.

There are also elements floating around that were never part of any (X)HTML specification, but were simply proprietary (browser-specific). I'm not even going to mention them here. Please, do not use these elements.

Attributes

Required Attributes

These attributes must be included in the start tag

Optional Attributes

These attributes may be used in the element's start tag. Event, core, and language attributes are not listed here, as they are assumed to be useable by all elements (unless otherwise specified)

Forbidden Attributes

Events, core attributes, and language attributes may be used in all elements unless otherwise specified under forbidden attributes. The forbidden attributes fall into three categories:

Core Attributes

• class
• id
• style
• title

Language Attributes

• lang
• dir

Event Attributes

• onclick
• ondoubleclick
• onkeydown
• onkeypress
• onkeyup
• onmousedown
• onmouseup
• onmousemove
• onmouseout
• onmouseover

Some attribute groups are forbidden, but a single member of them is listed as implied or required. This is not contradictory; that one member is an implied or required attribute, the rest are forbidden.

The Elements Of HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 Strict

Name	Element (Group)	Element Type	Empty?	Attributes			Description
				Required	Implied	Forbidden
All elements contained in this table are fully valid with HTML 4.01 Strict. Any overlapping function is due to precise semantics of each element.
!-- --	Comment	Not Applicable					This causes the browser to ignore whatever is within the comment, useful for documentation of the page.
a	Anchor	Inline	No	none	charset, coords, href, hreflang, name, onfocus, onblur, rel, rev, shape, type, accesskey, tabindex	none	This, with the href attribute, creates a hyperlink on the page.
abbr	Abbreviation	Inline	No	none			These are used for abbreviations (acronyms are abbreviations that become accepted as words). Often the title attribute contains the full name.
acronym	Acronym
address	Address	Block	No	none			This is used for addresses, most often e-mail, street, or mailing addreses.
area	Area	Invisible	Yes	alt	accesskey, coords, href, nohref, onfocus, onblur, shape, tabindex	none	This is used to create an area on an image map.
b	Bold	Inline	No	none			This is used to make the content bold.
base	Base	Head	Yes	href	none	Core Events Language	This is used to specify an absolute URI from which relative URIs may be extrapolated.
bdo	BiDirectional Override	Inline	No	dir	none	Events	This is used to override text direction within a block of text.
big	Big	Inline	No	none			This is used to make text big.
blockquote	Block Quote	Block	None-Empty	none	cite	none	This is used for long, multi-paragraph quotations.
body	Body	Other	No	none	onload, onunload	none	This contains all elements seen in the actual webpage.
br	Line Break	Other	Yes	none	none	Language Events	This is used to create a line break where it would not normally occur.
button	Button	inline	No	none	accesskey, disabled, name, onfocus, onblur, tabindex, type, value	none	This is used to create a button.
caption	Caption (Tables)	Block	No	none			This is used to create a table caption.
cite	Cite	Inline	No	none			This is used to create a citation.
code	Code	Inline	No	none			This is used for computer coding, such as that of a programming language.
col	Column (Tables)	Invisible	Yes	none	align, char, charoff, span, valign, width	none	This is used to control a table columm.
colgroup	Column Group (Tables)	Invisible	No	none	align, char, charoff, span, valign, width	none	This is used to control a group of table columms.
dd	Definition Description (Dfn. List)	Block	No	none			This is used to contain the description of a defined term.
del	Deleted Text	Block	No	none	cite, datetime	none	This is used to contain text that is officially deleted, but still is included for historical purposes.
		Inline
dfn	Definition	Inline	No	none			This is used to contain an inline definition.
div	Division	Block	No	none			This is used to divide the content up into chunks.
dl	Definition List (Dfn. List)	Block	No	none			This is used to create a list of definitions.
dt	Definition Term (Dfn. List)	Block	No	none			This is used to contain a term to be defined.
em	Emphasize	Inline	No	none			This is used to emphasize text.
fieldset	Field Set (Form)	Block	No	none			This is used to organize a form into sections.
form	Form (Form)	Block	No	action	accept, accept-charset, enctype, method, name, onreset, onsubmit	none	This is used to create a form.
h1	Header Level 1	Block	No	none			These are used to give headings to different sections of a webpage.
h2	Header Level 2
h3	Header Level 3
h4	Header Level 4
h5	Header Level 5
h6	Header Level 6
head	Head	Other	No	none	profile	Core Events	This is used to contain elements that hold extra data about the webpage.
hr	Horizontal Rule	Block	Yes	none			This is used to create a horizontal line on the webpage.
html	Hypertext Markup Language Root Element	Root	No	none		Core Events	This is the root element of an HTML document.
i	Italics	Inline	No	none			This is used to put text in italics.
img	Image	Inline	Yes	src, alt	height, ismap, longdesc, name, usemap, width	none	This is used to embed an image in the webpage.
input	Input (Form)	Inline	Yes	none	accept, accesskey, alt, checked, disabled, ismap, maxlength, name, onblur, onchange, onfocus, onselect, readonly, size, src, tabindex, type, usemap, value	none	This is used to create a field with which the user can input information.
ins	Inserted	Block	No	none	cite, datetime	none	This is used to denote text that has been inserted into the document.
		Inline
kbd	Keyboard Text	Inline	No	none			This indicates text that is to be typed by the user.
label	Label (Form)	Inline	No	none	accesskey, for, onblur, onfocus	none	This element contains labels for form fields.
legend	Legend (Form)	Inline	No	none	accesskey	none	This element is used to create a caption for fieldset
li	List Item (Item List)	Block	No	none			This element is used to create list items, which go into ordered or unordered lists.
link	Link	Head	Yes	none	charset, href, hreflang, media, rel, rev, type	none	This element links the page with another document, creating a relationship between the two.
map	Image Map	Invisible	No	id	name	none	This creates an image map, which is a picture with clickable regions. The id attribute allows an image to refer to it, and it contains area elements to define those regions.
meta	Meta Data	Head	Yes	content	http-equiv, name, scheme	Core Events	Meta data is information about your website. This element communicates not only with the browser, but with the server as well.
noscript	Noscript	Block	No	none			This is used for browsers that don't support a client-side script, such as JavaScript or VBScript.
object	Object	Block	No	none	archive, classid, codebase, codetype, data, declare, height, name, standby, tabindex, type, usemap, width	none	This is used to embed an object, such as a Java appelette, Flash movie, or other multimedia.
ol	Ordered List (Item List)	Block	No	none			This creates an ordered list, a list in which things are presented in a specific sequence.
optgroup	Option Group (Form)	Other	No	label	disabled	none	This creates a group of options in a selection list (which works as a drop-down menu.)
option	Option (Form)	Other	No	none	disabled, label, selected, value	none	This creates an option in a selection list.
p	Paragraph	Block	No	none			This is used to create paragraphs. It is probably the most common element in the HTML document body.
param	Parameter (Object)	Invisible	Yes	name	id, type, value, valuetype	Events Core Language	This sets the run-time parameters for an embedded object
pre	Preformatted Text	Block	No	none			This element contains text with the whitespace and line breaks preserved.
q	Quotation	Inline	No	none	cite	none	This is used to contain a short quotation, usually less than a sentance. In many browsers, The content is put inside quotation marks.
samp	Sample	Inline	No	none			This indicates that its contents are a sample of computer code.
script	Script	Head	No	type	charset, defer, src	none	This contains script of some type, which controls how your webpage behaves. The most common is JavaScript. This can be used in either the Head or Body of the document.
		Other
select	Select (Form)	Block	No	none	disabled, multiple, name, onblur, onchange, onfocus, size, tabindex	none	This is used in forms, so that you can select items from a dropdown list.
small	Small	Inline	No	none			This renders smaller text. Its function has been passed over to stylesheets, but it is not deprecated.
span	Span	Inline	No	none			This element controls a span of text within a block element.
strong	Strong	Inline	No	none			This is to make certain words stand out from others, like keywords.
style	Style	Head	No	type	media, title	Events Core	This is used to contain an internal stylesheet, also known as an embedded stylesheet.
sub	Subscript	Inline	No	none			This element contains subscript text, such as that used in chemical forumlas (H2SO4, also known as Sulphuric Acid)
sup	Superscript	Inline	No	none			This is used for superscript text, as seen in the name McDonald.
table	Table (Table)	Block	No	none	border, cellpadding, cellspacing, frame, rules, summary, width	none	This creates a table on the webpage.
tbody	Table Body (Table)	Block	No	none	align, char, charoff, valign	none	This is the body of the table, where most of the data goes.
td	Table Data Cell (Table)	Block	No	none	abbr, align, axis, char, charoff, colspan, headers, rowspan, scope, valign	none	This contains individual packets of data in a table.
textarea	Text Area	Block	No	cols, rows	disabled, name, readonly	none	This creates a text box in a page where a message can be typed.
tfoot	Table Foot (Table)	Block	No	none	align, char, charoff, valign	none	The table foot contains info at the bottom of the table. It must directly follow the table head, and be followed by the table body, despite the table body appearing to be before the table footer.
th	Table Header Cell (Table)	Block	No	none	abbr, align, axis, char, charoff, colspan, headers, rowspan, scope, valign	none	The Table Header cell is used to create column headers. The ID attribute also helps text-only browsers to make sense of the tables.
thead	Table Header (Table)	Block	No	none	align, char, charoff, valign	none	The Table Head contains the column headers of a table.
title	Title	Head	No	none		Events Core	This creates a title in the web browser titlebar.
tr	Table Row (Table)	Block	No	none	align, char, charoff, valign	none	This arranges data and header cells into rows in a table.
tt	Teletype Text	Inline	No	none			This defines its contents as teletyped or monospaced text.
ul	Unordered List (Item List)	Block	No	none			This element creates an unordered list, in which the items are in no particular order.
var	Variable	Inline	No	none			This element means that its contents are an example of a variable.

Deprecated (X)HTML Elements

Name	Element (Element Group)	Block, Head, Inline, Invisible, Other	Empty?	Attributes			Description
				Required	Implied	Forbidden
These elements are valid as HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0 Transitional or Frameset. These elements have had their functions subsumed by other elements and/or stylesheets, or will be discarded altogether.
applet	Applet	Block	No	height, width	align, alt, archive, code, codebase, hspace, name, object, vspace	Language Script	This is used to put a Java applet into an HTML document. This function has been absorbed by the object element.
basefont	Base Font	Head	Yes	none	color, face, size	Events	This set the default font color, size, and face of the webpage. Its role has been absorbed by stylesheets.
center	Center	Block	No	none			This centered its text horizontally. It has been completely replaced by CSS.
dir	Directory (Item List)	Block	No	none	compact	none	This creates a directory listing, which is an item list indistinguishable from an unordered list. The unordered list has taken over its role.
font	Font	Inline	No	none	color, face, size	Events	The font tag controls the text within it, setting size, color, and font face. It has been completely replaced by stylesheets.
iframe	Inline Frame	Block	No	none	align, frameborder, height, longdesc, marginheight, marginwidth, name, scrolling, src, width	Language Events	An inline frame displays a subwindow within a page. This allows you to show a document within a document, and works like a client-side include.
isindex	IS Index	Block	Yes	none	prompt	Events	This element creates a single-line input field where you could type in keywords to search for.
menu	Menu (Item List)	Block	No	none	compact	none	The menu is a type of item list that creates a menu of items. This has been absorbed by the unordered list.
s	Strikethrough	Inline	No	none			Strikethrough text usually means text that has been "deleted." This has been taken over by the del element and stylesheets.
strike
u	Underline	Inline	No	none			This element underlines its contents. It has been replaced by stylesheets.

Obsolete HTML Elements

Name	Element (Element Group)	Block, Head, Inline, Other	Empty	Description
Obsolete elements have been removed from the HTML specification entirely. Their use is highly discouraged.
comment	Comment	Invisible	No	This allowed for certain sections of the webpage to be ignored. The current element is <!-- -->, which is found at the start of the "Current Elements" table.
listing	Listing	Block	No	This allowed a list to be created by preserving the whitespace of its contents. This task is done by the pre element alone.
plaintext	Plain Text	Block	No	This element renders all HTML in it as plain text including its own end tag—in short, there's no way to stop its effect. In XHTML, it ends at its end tag.
xmp	XMP	Block	No	This element rendered text as preformatted text, but also rendered HTML contained within as plain text. Unlike the plaintext element, this did not include its own end tag.