Web/CSS/clear

The clear CSS property sets whether an element must be moved below (cleared) floating elements that precede it. The clear property applies to floating and non-floating elements.

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When applied to non-floating blocks, it moves the border edge of the element down until it is below the margin edge of all relevant floats. The non-floated block's top margin collapses.

Vertical margins between two floated elements on the other hand will not collapse. When applied to floating elements, the margin edge of the bottom element is moved below the margin edge of all relevant floats. This affects the position of later floats, since later floats cannot be positioned higher than earlier ones.

The floats that are relevant to be cleared are the earlier floats within the same block formatting context.

If an element contains only floated elements, its height collapses to nothing. If you want it to always be able to resize, so that it contains floating elements inside it, you need to self-clear its children. This is called clearfix, and one way to do it is to add clear to a replaced ::after pseudo-element on it.

#container::after { 
  content: "";
  display: block; 
  clear: both;
}

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
clear: none;
clear: left;
clear: right;
clear: both;
clear: inline-start;
clear: inline-end;

/* Global values */
clear: inherit;
clear: initial;
clear: unset;

Values

none

Is a keyword indicating that the element is not moved down to clear past floating elements.

left

Is a keyword indicating that the element is moved down to clear past left floats.

right

Is a keyword indicating that the element is moved down to clear past right floats.

both

Is a keyword indicating that the element is moved down to clear past both left and right floats.

inline-start

Is a keyword indicating that the element is moved down to clear floats on start side of its containing block, that is the left floats on ltr scripts and the right floats on rtl scripts.

inline-end

Is a keyword indicating that the element is moved down to clear floats on end side of its containing block, that is the right floats on ltr scripts and the left floats on rtl scripts.

Formal definition

Initial value	none
Applies to	block-level elements
Inherited	no
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

none | left | right | both | inline-start | inline-end

Examples

clear: left

HTML

<div class="wrapper">
  <p class="black">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus sit amet diam. Duis mattis varius dui. Suspendisse eget dolor.</p>
  <p class="red">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p>
  <p class="left">This paragraph clears left.</p>
</div>

CSS

.wrapper{
  border:1px solid black;
  padding:10px;
}
.left {
  border: 1px solid black;
  clear: left;
}
.black {
  float: left;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: black;
  color: #fff;
  width: 20%;
}
.red {
  float: left;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: pink;
  width:20%;
}
p {
  width: 50%;
}

clear: right

HTML

<div class="wrapper">
  <p class="black">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus sit amet diam. Duis mattis varius dui. Suspendisse eget dolor.</p>
  <p class="red">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p>
  <p class="right">This paragraph clears right.</p>
</div>

CSS

.wrapper{
  border:1px solid black;
  padding:10px;
}
.right {
  border: 1px solid black;
  clear: right;
}
.black {
  float: right;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: black;
  color: #fff;
  width:20%;
}
.red {
  float: right;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: pink;
  width:20%;
}
p {
  width: 50%;
}

clear: both

HTML

<div class="wrapper">
  <p class="black">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus sit amet diam. Duis mattis varius dui. Suspendisse eget dolor. Fusce pulvinar lacus ac dui.</p>
  <p class="red">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus sit amet diam. Duis mattis varius dui. Suspendisse eget dolor.</p>
  <p class="both">This paragraph clears both.</p>
</div>

CSS

.wrapper{
  border:1px solid black;
  padding:10px;
}
.both {
  border: 1px solid black;
  clear: both;
}
.black {
  float: left;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: black;
  color: #fff;
  width:20%;
}
.red {
  float: right;
  margin: 0;
  background-color: pink;
  width:20%;
}
p {
  width: 45%;
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Logical Properties and Values Level 1The definition of 'float and clear' in that specification.	Editor's Draft	Adds the values inline-start and inline-end
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)The definition of 'clear' in that specification.	Recommendation	No significant changes, though details are clarified.
CSS Level 1The definition of 'clear' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in 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
clear	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 4	Opera Full support 3.5	Safari Full support 1	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
Flow-relative values inline-start and inline-end	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 55	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 55	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

See also

• CSS basic box model

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