<var>: The Variable element - HTML: HyperText Markup Language 编辑

The HTML Variable element (<var>) represents the name of a variable in a mathematical expression or a programming context. It's typically presented using an italicized version of the current typeface, although that behavior is browser-dependent.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

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	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	HTMLElement

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Usage notes

Related elements

Other elements that are used in contexts in which <var> is commonly used include:

• <code>: The HTML Code element
• <kbd>: The HTML Keyboard input element
• <samp>: The HTML Sample Output element

If you encounter code that is mistakenly using <var> for style purposes rather than semantic purposes, you should either use a <span> with appropriate CSS or, an appropriate semantic element among the following:

• <em>
• <i>
• <q>

Default style

Most browsers apply font-style to "italic" when rendering <var>. This can be overridden in CSS, like this:

var {
  font: bold 15px "Courier", "Courier New", monospace;
}

Examples

Basic example

Here's a simple example, using <var> to denote variable names in a mathematical equation.

<p>A simple equation:
  <var>x</var> = <var>y</var> + 2 </p>

The output:

Overriding the default style

Using CSS, you can override the default style for the <var> element. In this example, variable names are rendered using bold Courier if it's available, otherwise it falls back to the default monospace font.

CSS

var {
  font: bold 15px "Courier", "Courier New", monospace;
}

HTML

<p>The variables <var>minSpeed</var> and <var>maxSpeed</var> control
   the minimum and maximum speed of the apparatus in revolutions
   per minute (RPM).</p>

This HTML uses <var> to enclose the names of two variables.

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living Standard The definition of '<var>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5 The definition of '<var>' in that specification.	Recommendation

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.