HTML
Living Standard — Last Updated 21 September 2026
Living Standard — Last Updated 21 September 2026
html elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.
head element followed by a body element.html element's start tag can be omitted
if the first thing inside the html element is not a comment.html element's end tag can be omitted if
the html element is not immediately followed by a comment.[Exposed =Window ]
interface HTMLHtmlElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor ] constructor ();
// also has obsolete members
};The html element represents the root of an HTML document.
Authors are encouraged to specify a lang attribute on the root
html element, giving the document's language. This aids speech synthesis tools to
determine what pronunciations to use, translation tools to determine what rules to use, and so
forth.
The html element in the following example declares that the document's language
is English.
<!DOCTYPE html>
< html lang = "en" >
< head >
< title > Swapping Songs</ title >
</ head >
< body >
< h1 > Swapping Songs</ h1 >
< p > Tonight I swapped some of the songs I wrote with some friends, who
gave me some of the songs they wrote. I love sharing my music.</ p >
</ body >
</ html > head elementSupport in all current engines.
Support in all current engines.