HTML - <cite>

The HTML Citation Element (<cite>) represents a reference to a creative work. It must include the title of a work or a URL reference, which may be in an abbreviated form according to the conventions used for the addition of citation metadata.

Example

 

HTML
More information can be found in <cite>[ISO-0000]</cite>.

The HTML above outputs:

More information can be found in [ISO-0000].

Description  

The HTML Citation Element (<cite>) represents a reference to a creative work. It must include the title of a work or a URL reference, which may be in an abbreviated form according to the conventions used for the addition of citation metadata.

Usage Notes:

  • A creative work may include a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theater production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhibition, a legal case report, a computer program, a web site, a web page, a blog post or comment, a forum post or comment, a tweet, a written or oral statement, etc.
  • The W3C spec states that a reference to a creative work may include the author's name, while WHATWG has declared that it may not include a person's name under any circumstances.
  • Use the cite attribute on a <blockquote> or <q> element to reference an online resource for a source.
Content categories Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content Phrasing content.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parent elements Any element that accepts phrasing content.
DOM interface HTMLElement Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element.

Browser Compatibility  

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) 1.0 (1.0) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

Notes  

To avoid the default italic style from being used for the <cite> element use the CSS font-style property.

See Also  

  • The element <blockquote> for long quotations.
  • The element <q> for inline quotations.

Specifications  

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of '<cite>' in that specification.		 Living Standard  
HTML5
The definition of '<cite>' in that specification.		 Recommendation  
HTML 4.01 Specification
The definition of '<cite>' in that specification.		 Recommendation  

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/html/element/cite

Element HTML HTML text-level semantics Reference Web