The HTML <head>
element contains machine-readable information (metadata) about the document, like its title, scripts, and style sheets.
Note: <head>
primarily holds information for machine processing, not human-readability. For human-visible information, like top-level headings and listed authors, see the <header>
element.
Content categories | None. |
Permitted content |
If the document is an Otherwise, one or more elements of metadata content where exactly one is a |
Tag omission | The start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <head> element is an element.
The end tag may be omitted if the first thing following the |
Permitted parents | An <html> element, as its first child.
|
Implicit ARIA role | No corresponding role |
Permitted ARIA roles | No role permitted
|
DOM interface | HTMLHeadElement
|
Attributes
This element includes the global attributes.
profile
'- The URIs of one or more metadata profiles, separated by white space.
Example
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Document title</title>
</head>
</html>
Notes
HTML5-compliant browsers automatically create a <head>
element if its tags are omitted in the markup. This auto-creation is not guaranteed in ancient browsers.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living StandardThe definition of '<head>' in that specification. | Living Standard | No change from latest shapshot |
HTML5The definition of '<head>' in that specification. | Recommendation | Obsoleted profile
|
HTML 4.01 SpecificationThe definition of '<head>' in that specification. | Recommendation |
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 | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
head
|
Chrome
Full support 1 |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 1 |
IE
Full support Yes |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support Yes |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
Full support 4 |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support Yes |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
|
Chrome
Full support 1 |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 1 |
IE
Full support Yes |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support Yes |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
Full support 4 |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support Yes |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.'
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.'
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See also
- Elements that can be used inside the
<head>
:
<head>: The Document Metadata (Header) element by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.