dl Element

Module

The dl element is a block-level element declared by the XHTML 1.1 List Module

Elements in the List Module are:
ul | ol | li | dl | dt | dd

Description

The dl element is used to enclose a list of term/definition pairs (which are implemented using the dt and dd elements, respectively).

<dl>
  <dt>Term A</dt>
    <dd>Definition of Term A</dd>
  <dt>Term B</dt>
    <dd>Definition of Term B</dd>
  <dt>Term C</dt>
    <dd>Definition of Term C</dd>
</dl>

The dd elements are usually indented by the browser - the list above is not styled and so the appearance above is your browser's default behaviour. Definition lists should not be used in cases where the visual effect of indentation is desired but the content is not a series of term/definition pairs: use CSS instead. Apart from anything else, different browsers may render definition lists in different ways and the appearance may not be consistent.

Note that a definition list will be valid XHTML 1.1 as long as it contains any number of dt and dd elements in any order (as long as the list is not empty). It does not make logical sense, however, unless the items are arranged in term/definition pairs.

See also the dfn element.

#REQUIRED Attributes

There are no #REQUIRED attributes on the dl element.

Specific Attributes

There are no specific attributes declared on the dl element.

Common Attributes

From the Core Attribute Collection

class [ type NMTOKENS ]

One or more space separated classes

id [ type ID ]

A unique identifier for the element

style [ type CDATA ], from the Style Attribute Module (deprecated)

Element-specific styles

title [ type Text ]

Descriptive title for the element (in some user agents this may appear as a "tooltip" when the mouse hovers over the element)

xmlns [ type URI - #FIXED 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' ]

XML namespace

From the I18N Attribute Collection

dir [ type Enumeration (ltr | rtl) ], from the Bi-directional Text Module

Left-to-right or right-to-left directionality

xml:lang [ type LanguageCode ]

A language code for the element

From the Events Attribute Collection

All attributes in the Events Attribute Collection are supported:
onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup

Content Model

( dt | dd )+

NOTE: This element cannot be empty

See Content Model & Nesting for information about Content Model syntax and Nesting Groups.

Valid children of dl

• From the List Module: dd, dt

Valid parents of dl

• From the Structure Module: body
• From the Text Module: blockquote, div
• From the List Module: dd, li
• From the Tables Module: td, th
• From the Forms Module: button, fieldset, form
• From the Client-side Image Map Module: map
• From the Scripting Module: noscript
• From the Edit Module: del, ins
• From the Object Module: object