HTML <cite> Element
The <cite> element identifies the title of a creative work, such as a book, article, poem, song, film, painting, computer program, website, or other referenced work.
Syntax
<cite>Title of Work</cite>The opening and closing tags are both required. The <cite> element contains phrasing content and can be used wherever phrasing content is permitted.
Attributes
The <cite> element supports the global HTML attributes. It does not have any element-specific attributes.
Example
The following example uses <cite> to identify the title of a book:
<p>One of my favorite books is <cite>The Hobbit</cite> by J.R.R. Tolkien.</p>Only the title of the work is contained inside <cite>. The author's name is not part of the citation element.
Try It Yourself
Change the title inside the <cite> element to another book, film, song, website, or other creative work.
Usage Notes
The <cite> element represents the title of a work, not the name of the person who created it. Author names, artist names, speaker names, and other people's names should not be marked up with <cite> unless the person's name is actually part of the title.
A creative work can include a book, article, research paper, poem, song, film, television program, game, painting, sculpture, computer program, website, web page, blog post, or other identifiable work.
The <cite> element identifies the title of a work; it does not represent the quotation itself. Use <q> for a short inline quotation or <blockquote> for an extended quotation.
When identifying the source URL of quoted material, use the cite attribute on <q> or <blockquote>. The <cite> element and the cite attribute serve different purposes.
Browsers commonly display <cite> text in italics, but this presentation can be changed with CSS. The element should be chosen for its meaning rather than its default appearance.
Browser Support
Baseline: Widely available indicates a feature has been supported by core browsers for at least 30 months. At this stage, the feature is considered stable and safe for most websites to use without needing to worry about compatibility issues or fallbacks, as it is supported by the vast majority of users' devices and browser versions.
For detailed browser compatibility information, see Can I Use: HTML <cite> Element .
Related Elements
<blockquote> - Represents an extended quotation from another source.
<q> - Represents a short inline quotation.
<figcaption> - Provides a caption or legend for a <figure> and may contain a <cite> when identifying a referenced work.