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<abbr>

by Ross Shannon

The <abbr> element represents an abbreviation or acronym. The optional title attribute can provide the full expansion of the abbreviation. When present, the title must contain the full expansion and nothing else. Browsers typically display the expansion as a tooltip when users hover over the abbreviation.

Clock This page was last updated on 2025-11-17


Syntax

<abbr title="expansion">abbreviation</abbr>

The element requires both opening and closing tags. The content between the tags is the abbreviated form that appears in the text.

Attributes

  • title - Provides the full expansion or definition of the abbreviation. This is displayed as a tooltip on hover in most browsers.
  • Global attributes - The <abbr> element supports all global attributes such as id, class, style, lang, and dir.

Examples

Basic Abbreviation

<p>The <abbr title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr> was invented by Tim Berners-Lee.</p>

Technical Acronym

<p>This page uses <abbr title="Hypertext Markup Language">HTML</abbr> and <abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr>.</p>

Medical Abbreviation

<p>The patient was diagnosed with <abbr title="Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder">ADHD</abbr>.</p>

When to Use

Use the <abbr> element when:

  • Introducing an abbreviation that may be unfamiliar to readers
  • The expansion would be helpful for accessibility purposes
  • You want to provide semantic meaning to abbreviated text
  • Creating glossaries or technical documentation

You don't need to mark up every instance of an abbreviation. Typically, mark the first occurrence in a document or section, especially when providing the expansion via the title attribute.

  • <dfn> - Defines a term being defined in context
  • <acronym> - Deprecated element for acronyms (use <abbr> instead)
  • <cite> - For citing titles of works
  • <code> - For code fragments