The <div> HTML element is the generic container for flow content. It has no effect on the content or layout until styled in some way using CSS (e.g. styling is directly applied to it, or some kind of layout model like Flexbox is applied to its parent element).

As a "pure" container, the <div> element does not inherently represent anything. Instead, it's used to group content so it can be easily styled using the class or id attributes, marking a section of a document as being written in a different language (using the lang attribute), and so on.

This element includes the global attributes.

• The <div> element should be used only when no other semantic element (such as <article> or <nav>) is appropriate.

The <div> element has an implicit role of generic, and not none. This may affect certain ARIA combination declarations that expect a direct descendant element with a certain role to function properly.

<div>
  <p>
    Any kind of content here. Such as &lt;p&gt;, &lt;table&gt;. You name it!
  </p>
</div>

Result

This example creates a shadowed box by applying a style to the <div> using CSS. Note the use of the class attribute on the <div> to apply the style named "shadowbox" to the element.

HTML

<div class="shadowbox">
  <p>Here's a very interesting note displayed in a lovely shadowed box.</p>
</div>

CSS

.shadowbox {
  width: 15em;
  border: 1px solid #333;
  box-shadow: 8px 8px 5px #444;
  padding: 8px 12px;
  background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #fff, #ddd 40%, #ccc);
}

Result

• Semantic sectioning elements: <section>, <article>, <nav>, <header>, <footer>
• <span> element for styling of phrasing content