Web/CSS/Universal selectors

The CSS universal selector (*) matches elements of any type.

/* Selects all elements */
* {
  color: green;
}

Beginning with CSS3, the asterisk may be used in combination with namespaces:

• ns|* - matches all elements in namespace ns
• *|* - matches all elements
• |* - matches all elements without any declared namespace

Syntax

* { style properties }

The asterisk is optional with simple selectors. For instance, *.warning and .warning are equivalent.

Examples

CSS

* [lang^=en] {
  color: green;
}

*.warning {
  color: red;
}

*#maincontent {
  border: 1px solid blue;
}

.floating {
  float: left
}

/* automatically clear the next sibling after a floating element */
.floating + * {
  clear: left;
}

HTML

<p class="warning">
  <span lang="en-us">A green span</span> in a red paragraph.
</p>
<p id="maincontent" lang="en-gb">
  <span class="warning">A red span</span> in a green paragraph.
</p>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Selectors Level 4The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Working Draft	No changes
Selectors Level 3The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Recommendation	Defines behavior regarding namespaces and adds hint that omitting the selector is allowed within pseudo-elements
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

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
Universal selector (*)	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 7	Opera Full support 3.5	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	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
*)	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 1.3	WebView Android Full support ≤37	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

Universal selectors by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.