Web/HTML/Element/span

The HTML <span> element is a generic inline container for phrasing content, which does not inherently represent anything. It can be used to group elements for styling purposes (using the class or id attributes), or because they share attribute values, such as lang. It should be used only when no other semantic element is appropriate. <span> is very much like a <div> element, but <div> is a block-level element whereas a <span> is an inline element.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content, or any element that accepts flow content.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	HTMLSpanElement (before [[../../../../Glossary/HTML5|HTML5]], the interface was HTMLElement)

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Example

Example 1

HTML

<p><span>Some text</span></p>

Example 2

HTML

<li><span>
    <a href="portfolio.html" target="_blank">See my portfolio</a>
</span></li>

CSS

li span {
  background: gold;
 }

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of '<span>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5The definition of '<span>' in that specification.	Recommendation	The DOM interface is now HTMLSpanElement.
HTML 4.01 SpecificationThe definition of '<span>' 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
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
span	Chrome Full support Yes	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

See also

• HTML <div> element

<span> by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.