The <s> tag is used to define a text, which is not relevant anymore. Browsers display the tag content as a strikethrough text.

For example, the tag can be used to show the new price of a product, still displaying its original price but with a line through the middle.

Don’t use the <s> tag to define a deleted text because it is a deprecated HTML tag, use the <del> tag instead.

Most screen reading technology doesn’t announce the existence of the <s> tag in the default configuration. To announce it, use the CSS content property with the ::after and ::before pseudo-elements.

Syntax

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

Example of the HTML <s> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p><s>I am studying in high school.</s></p>
    <p>I am studying in an university.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Result

s tag example

Attributes

The <s> tag supports Global attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <s> tag?

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

Browser support

chrome edge firefox safari opera

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