<html>: The HTML Document / Root element

The <html> HTML element represents the root (top-level element) of an HTML document, so it is also referred to as the root element. All other elements must be descendants of this element.

Content categories None.
Permitted content One <head> element, followed by one <body> element.
Tag omission The start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <html> element is not a comment.
The end tag may be omitted if the <html> element is not immediately followed by a comment.
Permitted parents None. This is the root element of a document.
Implicit ARIA role No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles No role permitted
DOM interface HTMLHtmlElement

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

manifest

Specifies the URI of a resource manifest indicating resources that should be cached locally. See Using the application cache for details.

version

Specifies the version of the HTML Document Type Definition that governs the current document. This attribute is not needed, because it is redundant with the version information in the document type declaration.

xmlns

Specifies the XML Namespace of the document. Default value is "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml". This is required in documents parsed with XML parsers, and optional in text/html documents.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>...</head>
  <body>...</body>
</html>

Accessibility concerns

Providing a lang attribute with a valid IETF identifying language tag on the <html> element will help screen reading technology determine the proper language to announce. The identifying language tag should describe the language used by the majority of the content of the page. Without it, screen readers will typically default to the operating system's set language, which may cause mispronunciations.

Including a valid lang declaration on the <html> element also ensures that important metadata contained in the page's <head>, such as the page's <title>, are also announced properly.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
html
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
manifest
4
12
3.5-84
3
Before version 3.5, Firefox ignores the NETWORK and FALLBACK sections of the cache manifest file.
10
10.6
4
4
18
4-84
11
3.2
1.0
version
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
xmlns
Yes
12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

See also

  • MathML top-level element: <math>
  • SVG top-level element: <svg>

© 2005–2021 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/html