DL

The items within the list are introduced by the two elements

<DT> -- The 'Term'

<DD> -- The 'Definition'

DL can take a single attribute, COMPACT, to signify that the list is small (or large) and should be rendered in a physically compact way. Note that many browsers do not perform any special rendering on encountering the COMPACT attribute.

Example:

<dl>
<dt> Things to Avoid:
    <dd> You should NOT use elements that define paragraph
    formatting within the PRE element. This means you should
    not use <code> <P>, <ADDRESS>, <Hn> </code>and so
    on. You should avoid the use of tab characters -- use single
    blank characters to space text apart.
<dt> Things That are OK:
    <dd>You <em> can </em> use Anchor.  A typed
    carriage return will cause a new line in the presented text.
    People you should never let format lists include:
    <ul>
    <li> Bozo the Clown
    <li> Uncle Fester
    <li> Knights who go nii
    </ul>
    Which would be donwright silly in the first place.
</dl>

Note that the DD element can contain a wide range of elements, including P, BLOCKQUOTE, FORM and even other lists (even other DL's), so DL can form quite a powerful organizing structure of complex textual material. Moreover you can have more than DT associated with a single DD and vice versa (or you can have a DT without a DD, and vice versa. Careful thought should be given to the meaning of such usage, but there are occasions when such elaborate markup is appropriate and effective.

Content

• dd -- Definition of term
• dt -- Term in definition list

ATTRIBUTES
CONTENT DECLARATION

Tag Minimization

Open Tag: REQUIRED
Close Tag: REQUIRED

Parent Elements

• blockquote -- Quoted passage
• body -- Document body
• center
• dd -- Definition of term
• div
• form -- Fill-out or data-entry form
• li -- List item
• multicol
• noscript
• td
• th

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