This page will explain the most basic CSS selectors. The element selector selects HTML elements based on the element name.

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A type selector is sometimes called a tag name selector or element selector because it selects an HTML tag/element in your document. In the example below, we have used the span, em and strong selectors. Try editing the following example (click "Play" to open it in the MDN Playground) to add ...

The CSS selectors module defines the patterns to select elements to which a set of CSS rules are then applied along with their specificity. The CSS selectors module provides us with more than 60 selectors and five combinators. Other modules provide additional pseudo-class selectors and ...

Using CSS combinators, we can combine selectors to select DOM nodes based on their relationship to other elements within the document node tree. This combining of selectors with combinators creates complex selectors. The descendant combinator, denoted with one or more spaces, selects nodes that are descendants of the first element. For example, div span will match all <span> elements that are inside a <div> element.

August 29, 2024 - The element selector in CSS is used to select HTML elements that are required to be styled.

May 2, 2025 - If selectors identify what we are selecting, you might think of combinators as how the styles are applied. Combinators are like additional instructions we give CSS to select a very particular element on the page, not totally unlike the way we can use filters in search engines to find the exact result we want.

Use our CSS Selector Tester to demonstrate the different selectors. The simple selectors select elements based on element-name, id, and class. In addition, there is the universal selector (*).

For example, if we wanted all emphasized text in our paragraphs's to have green text, but not emphasized text in other elements, we would use the following CSS rule: ... Match an element that is immediately after another element, but not a child of it. For example, if we wanted all paragraphs that immediately followed an h4 to have green text, but not other paragraphs, we would use the following CSS rule: ... Anchor elements are special. You can style the <a> element with an Element Type Selector, but it might not do exactly what you expect.

January 9, 2026 - CSS selectors let you determine which elements you want to apply CSS styling rules to, which define their look and feel — important things to account for when performing web UI tests.

A CSS selector is a pattern to matches elements in the document tree. The style declaration associated to the selector will be applied to the matched elements.

July 11, 2025 - The element > element Selector in CSS is used to select direct child elements of a specified parent element.

Now, let's learn about them in detail. The element selector selects HTML elements (p, div, h1, etc) and applies CSS to them.

CSS selectors are patterns used in CSS to select and style HTML elements on a page, allowing us to dictate how styles apply to specific HTML elements.

November 13, 2024 - CSS selectors are crucial parts of a CSS ruleset that allow specific HTML elements to be selected and styled based on their type, attributes, or location within the HTML document. There are several types of CSS selectors, including Universal, Element Type, ID, Class, Child Combinator, General ...

CSS element selector selects and styles specific HTML elements. The element selector is defined by simply using the element's name in the stylesheet.

Allows you to select the next element on the same level. ... For instructions, visit PageAssist setup. Selectors are most often used in CSS to target specific HTML elements on web pages that you want to style.

Universal Selector (*): Target the entire page. Element Selector: Target a specific element. ID Selector (#): Target element with a specific ID. Class Selector (.): Target element(s) with the same class. Group Selector: Group elements and target them. With selectors, CSS gives you the precision ...