Widely available Helpful for technical writing, glossaries, and documents with repeated abbreviations.

<abbr>

The <abbr> HTML element represents an abbreviation or acronym.

When including an abbreviation or acronym, provide a full expansion of the term in plain text on first use, along with the <abbr> to mark up the abbreviation. This informs the user what the abbreviation or acronym means.

The optional title attribute can provide an expansion for the abbreviation or acronym when a full expansion is not present. This provides a hint to user agents on how to announce/display the content while informing all users what the abbreviation means. If present, title must contain this full description and nothing else.

TextSemanticsAbbreviation

Browser support

Feature Desktop Mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Safari
Chrome Android
Safari iOS
<abbr>
2
12
1
4
18
3.2
1+Supported (version) Not supported ※Has note Sub-feature descriptions sourced from MDN Web Docs (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Notes 1 item(s)
Implementation note
  • Before Firefox 4, this element implemented the `HTMLSpanElement` interface instead of the standard `HTMLElement` interface.

Syntax

HTML 
<p><abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> is
a language that defines the structure of web pages.</p>

<p>The <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>
develops the specifications.</p>

Live demo

term. abbreviation

Title attribute in hover time to positive notationname display.abbreviation to style apply.

PreviewFullscreen

abbreviationlist

Multiple. abbreviation listshape notation in display.hover in positive notationname inspect the result..

PreviewFullscreen

abbreviation with textinside.

textchapterwithinabbreviation to usagepattern.initialout time to positive notationname record.

PreviewFullscreen

Use cases

  • Technical terms

    Mark acronyms such as HTML, CSS, or API while preserving readable prose around them.

  • Organization names

    Introduce abbreviated institutions or standards bodies with an expanded form for clarity.

Cautions

  • Do not rely on the title tooltip alone for comprehension, especially on touch devices where hover is not available.
  • If the abbreviation is unfamiliar or critical, explain it in the running text the first time it appears.

Accessibility

  • Some assistive technologies may not expose title text consistently, so the surrounding sentence should still make sense.

Related links