The <dl> Tag for a Description List
Formerly the Definition List element
The <dl> tag is used to create a description list consisting of description terms alternating with groups of one or more detail descriptions. Note that in previous versions of HTML these elements were called definition list, definition terms and definition descriptions. However, since the purpose of the HTML 5 <dfn> tag is to code a definition, the <dt> tag by itself does not identify a term being defined. To create a list of terms and definitions, such as for a glossary, each term defined should be identified by putting it inside a dfn element as shown in this example:
- Term: <dl> tag
- Definition: The <dl> tag is used to code a description list consisting of description terms alternating with groups of one or more detail descriptions.
- Term: <dt> tag
- Definition: The <dt> tag is used to code a description term in a description list, leading into one or more detail description elements.
- Term: <dd> tag
- Definition: The <dd> detail description tag is used to code the description of an item inside a dl element for a description list.
This is an actual working example of the <dl> tag example code below. In most HTML 5 browsers such as Firefox and Opera, the text inside the dfn element will be in an italic font, except for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and Safari which display it in an upright font.