A Tag for Definitions

The dl HTML tag seems to hardly be used anymore. But it's still good. It still works as well as it always has.

It can be used when you have terms and definitions to publish.

The letters "DL" stand for "Description List". Between the opening and closing dl tags are dt ("term") and dd ("description") tags.

Browsers have default formats for the dl HTML tag, which CSS can modify. Screen readers know what to expect when they encounter dl HTML tags.

Here is an example, rendered with your email reader's default format. (I added the background color separately.)

The dl HTML tag contains one or more dt and dd tag sets.

<dl>
<dt>title</dt>
<dd>description</dd>
<dt>another title</dt>
<dd>another description</dd>
</dl>

The above code is a guide for constructing a definition list. Below is the code for the example provided near the beginning of this article.

<dl>
<dt>Will Bontrager</dt>
<dd>A software developer who also writes non-fiction articles and fiction books. His books and writer tools are at <a href="https://willbontrager.com/">his author website.</a></dd>
<dt>Vern Harrison</dt>
<dd>Vern Harrison is a pen name of author Will Bontrager. <a href="https://vernharrison.com/">Vern Harrison books</a> are all dark Old West novels.</dd>
</dl>

Code as many dt and dd tag sets as you need for your list of terms and definitions.

If you put the dt { font-weight:bold; } CSS definition into your style sheet, the terms will become bold. That and other CSS can be applied to any of the dl, dt, and dd tags.

The description list tags are designed to be used when terms and definitions are to be published.

(This content first appeared in Possibilities newsletter.)

Will Bontrager