HTML <dd> Tag

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HTML <dd> tag, together with the <dl> and <dt> tags, is used to create a definition list. The <dd> tag contains a description of the term, which is defined by the <dt> tag. There should be at a minimum one <dt> tag followed by at a minimum one <dd> tag for each group. It is possible to list:

one term followed by several descriptions,
one term followed by one description,
several terms followed by one description,
several terms followed by several descriptions.

To determine the list itself, we use the <dl> tag. A single term may have several definitions in the description list. (Learn more about HTML lists).

The <dd> element is a block-level element and can comprise other elements: paragraphs, lists, images, links, and so on. It is placed within <body>.

The default content of the <dd> element has an outer margin on the left side.

Syntax

The <dd> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<dd>) and closing (</dd>) tags.

Example of the HTML <dd> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Definition list:</h1>
    <dl>
      <dt>Tea</dt>
      <dd>- hot drink</dd>
      <dt>Juice</dt>
      <dd>- ice drink</dd>
    </dl>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Example of the HTML <dd> tag for inserting a dialogue:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <dl>
      <dt>George</dt>
      <dd>Hi</dd>
      <dd>What’s up?</dd>
      <dt>Mary</dt>
      <dd>Hi.</dd>
      <dd>I’m doing well, what about you?</dd>
      <dt>George</dt>
      <dd>Thanks, everything is fine. What are you doing?</dd>
      <dt>Mary</dt>
      <dd>I’m going to a party today in the evening. And you?</dd>
    </dl>
  </body>
</html>

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Attributes

The <dd>tag supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <dd> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <dd> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <dd> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <dd> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <dd> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.