Web/API/Node/parentElement

The Node.parentElement read-only property returns the DOM node's parent Element, or null if the node either has no parent, or its parent isn't a DOM Element.

Syntax

parentElement = node.parentElement

parentElement is the parent element of the current node. This is always a DOM Element object, or null.

Example

if (node.parentElement) {
    node.parentElement.style.color = "red";
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOMThe definition of 'parentElement' in that specification.	Living Standard	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

On some browsers, the parentElement property is only defined on nodes that are themselves an Element. In particular, it is not defined on text nodes.

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
parentElement	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 9	IE Full support 9 Notes' Full support 9 Notes' Notes' Only supported on Element.	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 1.1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 9	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See implementation notes.'

See implementation notes.

See also

• Node.parentNode

Node.parentElement by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.