Web/API/Window/parent

The Window.parent property is a reference to the parent of the current window or subframe.

If a window does not have a parent, its parent property is a reference to itself.

When a window is loaded in an <iframe>, <object>, or <frame>, its parent is the window with the element embedding the window.

Syntax

var parentWindow = window.parent; 

Example

if (window.parent != window.top) {
  // We're deeper than one down
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'window.parent' in that specification.	Living Standard

Browser compatibility

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
parent	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support 3	Safari Full support 1.3	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support  

Full support

See also

• window.frameElement returns the specific element (such as <iframe>) the window is embedded into.
• window.top returns a reference to the top-level window.

Window.parent by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.