HTML Quotations
HTML has dedicated elements for short quotes, block quotes, abbreviations, citations, and addresses — each adds meaning beyond what plain text could carry.
Quotation and citation elements
| Element | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
<q> | Short inline quotation. | Browser auto-adds curly quotes. |
<blockquote> | Block-level quotation from another source. | Use cite attribute for the source URL. |
<abbr> | Abbreviation or acronym. | Use title for the full form: <abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> |
<cite> | Title of a work being referenced. | Renders italic by default. |
<address> | Contact information for the author or owner. | Typically goes in the footer. |
<bdo> | Bi-directional override — force text direction. | Requires dir="rtl" or "ltr". |
Note: Don't use
<blockquote> just for indentation. Use it only when you're quoting another source — otherwise use CSS margin or padding.Example
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>HTML Quotations</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>HTML Quotations</h1>
<p>This is a demo page for the "HTML Quotations" lesson.</p>
</body>
</html>
Try it Yourself »
Exercise
Wrap this long quote in the element designed for multi-line citations.
<
cite="https://example.com">A long passage…</
>
It renders indented by default.
Discussion
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