The <sup>
HTML element specifies inline text which is to be displayed as superscript for solely typographical reasons. Superscripts are usually rendered with a raised baseline using smaller text.
The <sup>
HTML element specifies inline text which is to be displayed as superscript for solely typographical reasons. Superscripts are usually rendered with a raised baseline using smaller text.
This element only includes the global attributes.
The <sup>
element should only be used for typographical reasons—that is, to change the position of the text to comply with typographical conventions or standards, rather than solely for presentation or appearance purposes.
For example, to style the wordmark of a business or product which uses a raised baseline should be done using CSS (most likely vertical-align
) rather than <sup>
. This would be done using, for example, vertical-align: super
or, to shift the baseline up 50%, vertical-align: 50%
.
Appropriate use cases for <sup>
include (but aren't necessarily limited to):
Exponents, or powers of a number, are among the most common uses of superscripted text. For example:
html
<p> One of the most common equations in all of physics is <var>E</var>=<var>m</var ><var>c</var><sup>2</sup>. </p>
Superior lettering is not technically the same thing as superscript. However, it is common to use <sup>
to present superior lettering in HTML. Among the most common uses of superior lettering is the presentation of certain abbreviations in French:
html
<p>Robert a présenté son rapport à M<sup>lle</sup> Bernard.</p>
Ordinal numbers, such as "fourth" in English or "quinto" in Spanish may be abbreviated using numerals and language-specific text rendered in superscript:
html
<p> The ordinal number "fifth" can be abbreviated in various languages as follows: </p> <ul> <li>English: 5<sup>th</sup></li> <li>French: 5<sup>ème</sup></li> </ul>
Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content. |
---|---|
Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
Implicit ARIA role | superscript |
Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
DOM interface | HTMLElement |
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-sub-and-sup-elements |
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | WebView Android | Chrome Android | Firefox for Android | Opera Android | Safari on IOS | Samsung Internet | |
sup |
1 | 12 | 1 | Yes | 15 | ≤4 | 4.4 | 18 | 4 | 14 | ≤3.2 | 1.0 |
<sub>
HTML element that produces subscripts. Note that you cannot use sub
and sup
at the same time: you need to use MathML to produce both a superscript and a subscript next to the chemical symbol of an element, representing its atomic number and its nuclear number.<msub>
, <msup>
, and <msubsup>
MathML elements.vertical-align
property.
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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/sup