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Descendant combinator

The descendant combinator — typically represented by a single space (" ") character — combines two selectors such that elements matched by the second selector are selected if they have an ancestor (parent, parent's parent, parent's parent's parent, etc.) element matching the first selector. Selectors that utilize a descendant combinator are called descendant selectors.

/* List items that are descendants of the "my-things" list */
ul.my-things li {
  margin: 2em;
}

The descendant combinator is technically one or more CSS white space characters — the space character and/or one of four control characters: carriage return, form feed, new line, and tab characters — between two selectors in the absence of another combinator. Additionally, the white space characters of which the combinator is comprised may contain any number of CSS comments.

Syntax

selector1 selector2 {
  /* property declarations */
}

Examples

CSS

li {
  list-style-type: disc;
}

li li {
  list-style-type: circle;
}

HTML

<ul>
  <li>
    <div>Item 1</div>
    <ul>
      <li>Subitem A</li>
      <li>Subitem B</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>
    <div>Item 2</div>
    <ul>
      <li>Subitem A</li>
      <li>Subitem B</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
Descendant_combinator
1Since Chrome 61, >>> is aliased to this selector since its use as the 'shadow-piercing descendant combinator' was deprecated.
12 1 3 3.5 1
4.4Since Chrome 61, >>> is aliased to this selector since its use as the 'shadow-piercing descendant combinator' was deprecated.
18Since Chrome 61, >>> is aliased to this selector since its use as the 'shadow-piercing descendant combinator' was deprecated.
4 10.1 1
1.0Since Samsung Internet 8.0, >>> is aliased to this selector since its use as the 'shadow-piercing descendant combinator' was deprecated.
two_greater_than_syntax No No No No No 10–11.1 No No No No 10–11.3 No

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Descendant_combinator