"Cascading" in this context means that because more than one stylesheet declaration could apply to a particular piece of HTML, there has to be a known way of determining which specific stylesheet rule applies to which piece of HTML.

The rule used is chosen by cascading down from the more general declarations to the specific rule required. The most specific declaration is chosen.

Read the official W3C specification on cascading here: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-cascade-4/

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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › css › what-does-the-cascading-portion-of-css-means
What Is Cascading in CSS? - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - Cascading in CSS refers to the process by which the browser determines which style rules to apply when multiple rules target the same element.
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"Cascading" in CSS
Cascade means style properties are inherited by all of an element's descendants by default. Not all and not all the time, as there are necessary exceptions and other factors. The rest comes down to specificity of rules. Rules that are more specific override properties from less specific rules. Similarly, rules evaluated later override earlier rules of the same or lesser specificity. The fundamentals of specificity increase are: element type -> class -> id -> inline style. Note that the way specificity works suggests that your CSS should start vague and become more specific. There's a lot more, but those basics will get you pretty far. More on reddit.com
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September 3, 2021
The meaning of cascading - HTML & CSS - SitePoint Forums | Web Development & Design Community
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. I can understand the meaning of Style. Does Sheet mean “a piece of paper?” What’s the meaning of cascading? More on sitepoint.com
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September 5, 2010
What is CSS (cascading style sheets)?
CSS is one part of the structure that makes up web programming alongside HTML and JavaScript. Imagine you are building a house. HTML is like the foundation, studs and support beams. It defines the structure of the webpage. JavaScript is like the plumbing and electrical work. It defines the functionality and interactivity of the web page. Which brings us to CSS. You can think of it like the tile floors, paint, shingles, etc. of the house. It defines the way the web page looks. It defines colors, shapes and sizes of elements on the page and the like. The term "Cascading" refers to the fact that the same styling rule can be applied to an HTML element at multiple scopes. For example, you may set the background color of an element directly on the HTML tag itself, then again in a style tag within the HTML file, and once again in an external CSS file. The browser must then determine which of these rules to use. Typically, this is the style defined at the most narrow scope meaning the style directly on the HTML tag itself is the one that renders. The style rules can be described as "Cascading" from the broadest scope (an external CSS file) to the most narrow (any inline CSS) with the narrowest rules taking precedence. More on reddit.com
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September 16, 2017
ELI5:CSS

HTML defines content, CSS decorates it and helps tell how it is displayed.

CSS stands for Cascading Stylesheet. This means that there is a hierarchy of style attributes overwriting other attributes that affect the same elements.

Think of it like this. Bob Ross does an oil painting and starts off with a canvas covered in liquid white. This is the lowest level on the hierarchy. It applies to the entire body of the painting, like a class applied to the body tag.

On that he paints some divs of class "mountain". The mountain class has the attribute paint-color:Van Dyke Brown. Since the div is within body the paint-color:Van Dyke Brown attribute overwrites the liquid white and you see the Van Dyke Brown over the liquid white.

He adds some divs of class "happy little tree" which are growing wherever they like, which happens to be on the mountains, so these happy little tree divs are within the mountain divs. Their paint-color:Sap Green is within the mountain div, so where the happy little tree divs are is painted with Sap Green on top of the Van Dyke Brown mountains.

Then Bob adds another happy little tree div. This one he wants to be Alizarin Crimson because its his world and it can be whatever fucking color he god damn pleases. Rather than giving it a special id and using the # selector Bob makes the happy little accident of using an inline style. This overwrites the happy little tree class's paint-color:Sap Green attribute with an inline paint-color:Alizarin Crimson because inline styles cascade over classes.

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MDN Web Docs
developer.mozilla.org › en-US › docs › Web › CSS › Guides › Cascade › Introduction
Introduction to the CSS cascade - CSS | MDN
December 16, 2025 - The cascade is an algorithm that defines how user agents combine property values originating from different sources. The cascade defines the origin and layer that takes precedence when declarations in more than one origin, cascade layer, or @scope block set a value for a property on an element.
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web.dev
web.dev › learn › css › the-cascade
The cascade | web.dev
July 3, 2025 - The cascade is the algorithm for solving conflicts where multiple CSS rules apply to an HTML element. It's the reason that the text of the button styled with the following CSS will be blue.
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Medium
medium.com › @nanisamireddy05 › understanding-the-css-cascading-4ee0e62ff738
Understanding the CSS Cascading. In web development, CSS (Cascading… | by Nani samireddy | Medium
March 24, 2025 - The CSS Cascade is a set of rules that dictate which styles are applied to elements when there are conflicts. This cascade is determined by three main factors: Specificity: The more specific a CSS rule is, the higher its priority.
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W3Schools
w3schools.com › css › css_intro.asp
CSS Introduction
CSS Templates CSS Examples CSS ... Next ❯ · CSS is the language we use to style a Web page. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets ·...
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GCFGlobal
edu.gcfglobal.org › en › basic-css › cascading-specificity-and-inheritance-in-css › 1
Basic CSS: Cascading, Specificity, and Inheritance in CSS
Cascading refers to the logic your browser uses to determine which CSS rulesets are the most important, especially when they conflict with each other. One of the simplest ways your browser does this is by paying attention to the order in which ...
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Speed Commerce
speedcommerce.com › what-is › cascading-style-sheets
What Are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)? Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Definition & Meaning | Speed Commerce
February 4, 2025 - To learn more, watch this short video. One of the principles of CSS is its cascading nature, which refers to the process of determining the final styles applied to an HTML element based on various factors such as specificity, inheritance, and the order of style rules.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › CSS
CSS - Wikipedia
3 days ago - The style sheet with the highest priority controls the content display. Declarations not set in the highest priority source are passed on to a source of lower priority, such as the user agent style. The process is called cascading.
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Reality Ripple
udn.realityripple.com › docs › Web › CSS › Cascade
Introducing the CSS Cascade - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
The cascading algorithm determines how to find the value to apply for each property for each document element. It first filters all the rules from the different sources to keep only the rules that apply to a given element. That means rules whose selector matches the given element and which ...
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MDN
mdn2.netlify.app › en-us › docs › web › css › cascade
Introducing the CSS Cascade - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets | MDN
The cascade is an algorithm that defines how to combine property values originating from different sources. It lies at the core of CSS, as emphasized by the name: Cascading Style Sheets.
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MDN Web Docs
developer.mozilla.org › en-US › docs › Web › CSS
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets | MDN
December 29, 2025 - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS describes how elements should be rendered on screen, on paper, in speech, or on other media.
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SimpleTiger
simpletiger.com › resources › glossary › cascading-style-sheets-css
What is Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)? - SimpleTiger
Inline: Adding styles directly ... nature of CSS means that when multiple conflicting styles are applied to the same element, some will override others based on a set of priority rules....
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › css › css-introduction
CSS Introduction - GeeksforGeeks
CSS styles are applied to the HTML element using selectors. Cascading in CSS defines how the browser resolves conflicts between multiple CSS rules using importance, specificity, and source order.
Published   January 21, 2026
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Medium
medium.com › @ksathyareddy7 › what-does-cascading-mean-in-css-with-specificity-explained-cd999c8b5de4
What Does “Cascading” Mean in CSS? (With Specificity Explained) | by Sathya Reddy | Medium
April 7, 2025 - The Cascade is the algorithm CSS uses to resolve conflicts when multiple rules target the same element. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and the term “cascading” describes how the browser determines which styles to apply when multiple ...
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SitePoint
sitepoint.com › html & css
The meaning of cascading - HTML & CSS - SitePoint Forums | Web Development & Design Community
September 5, 2010 - CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. I can understand the meaning of Style. Does Sheet mean “a piece of paper?” What’s the meaning of cascading?
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Hostinger
hostinger.com › home › tutorials › what is css and how does it work?
What is CSS: Cascading Style Sheet Explained for Beginners
August 21, 2025 - CSS is not technically a necessity, but a web page that features only HTML elements would look very plain and out of date. Read on to find out more about CSS. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets language and is used to stylize elements written in a markup language such as HTML.
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Udacity
udacity.com › blog › 2021 › 07 › what-is-css-cascading-style-sheets-explained.html
What is CSS? Cascading Style Sheets Explained | Udacity
October 24, 2024 - This means that the HTML document then moved on to that one and took whatever was inside of it. The only property value it found was the color change to red. It applied this to the paragraph element and gave a final render that was seen above. Consider the styles applied on the CSS file to be a waterfall of sorts. The code cascades down as water does in the waterfall.
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Quora
quora.com › Why-is-CSS-called-cascading
Why is CSS called 'cascading'? - Quora
Answer (1 of 3): Think of style sheets as kind of like a waterfall. A waterfall cascades down a cliff or ravine or from wherever its apex is, with the top of the waterfall generally being the point where the most water is flowing. In CSS, style sheets have the same type of priority, with the styl...