<em>
Stress in a sentence: a word that, read aloud, is pronounced with emphasis.
- Display
- inline
- Closing tag
- Required
- Permitted content
- Phrasing content
Example
#<p><em>I</em> didn't delete that file. Maybe someone else did?</p>
<p>I didn't delete <em>that</em> file. I deleted a completely different one.</p>
<p>I did <em>not</em> delete that file. Really!</p>Definition and usage
#The <em> element marks stress: a word or phrase that, when read aloud, is pronounced with emphasis. That emphasis changes the meaning of the sentence. Browsers display <em> in italics by default.
Look at how one sentence changes meaning depending on where the emphasis falls: "I didn’t delete that file" suggests someone else did, while "I didn’t delete that file" suggests I deleted a different one. <em> elements can be nested to mark an even stronger emphasis.
Don’t confuse it with similar-looking elements. <i> marks text in a different tone, such as a foreign expression, but without stress. <strong> speaks to importance, not to pronunciation. If all you want is italics, use CSS: font-style: italic.
Syntax
#<em>stressed text</em>Attributes
#This element has no attributes of its own. It supports the global attributes, such as class, id and hidden.
Default CSS
#Most browsers display this element with these default styles:
em {
font-style: italic;
}Browser support
#Widely available
Works in all modern browsers, phones included. You can use it without worry.
- Chrome
- Edge
- Firefox
- Safari
Good practices
#- Mark book and movie titles with
<cite>, and foreign expressions with<i>, not with<em>. - Don’t add stress to whole paragraphs. Emphasis only works when it’s rare.
- If you need italics purely for looks, e.g. in a photo caption, use CSS instead of
<em>.
Related entries
#- <em> vs <i><em> is stress that changes the meaning of a sentence when read aloud. <i> marks a different tone: foreign words, names or thoughts, without changing meaning.
- <strong>Text of great importance: a warning, key information.
- <i>Text in a different tone or voice: foreign expressions, Latin names, a character’s thoughts, technical terms.
- <b>Draws attention to a piece of text without giving it any extra weight, e.g. keywords.
- <mark>Highlights a piece of text like a highlighter, because it’s relevant in the current context.
- <cite>The title of a work: a book, an article, a movie, a song, a game, or a piece of software.
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