The HTML <abbr> element represents an abbreviation and optionally provides a full description for it. If present, the title attribute must contain this full description and nothing else.
| Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | Phrasing content |
| Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
| Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content |
| Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
| DOM Interface | HTMLElement |
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Use the title attribute to define the full description of the abbreviation. Many user agents present this as a tooltip.
Note: In languages with grammatical number (especially languages with more than two numbers, like Arabic), use the same grammatical number in your title attribute as inside your <abbr> element.
Example
<abbr title="Internationalization">I18N</abbr>
See more in-depth examples in the How to mark abbreviations and make them understandable article.
Default styling
The purpose of this element is purely for the convenience of the author and all browsers display it inline (display: inline) by default, though its default styling varies from one browser to another:
- Some browsers, like Internet Explorer, do not style it differently than a
<span>element. - Opera, Firefox, and some others add a dotted underline to the content of the element.
- A few browsers not only add a dotted underline, but also put it in small caps; to avoid this styling, adding something like
font-variant: nonein the CSS takes care of this case.
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of '<abbr>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
| HTML5 The definition of '<abbr>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
| HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<abbr>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
| Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | 2.0 | (Yes) | 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) [1] | 7.0 | 1.3 | (Yes) |
| Feature | Android | Edge | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
[1] Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 3.6), Firefox implemented the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element instead of the HTMLElement interface.