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Tutorial Reference

HTML Lists

Learn how to create ordered, unordered, and description lists in HTML using <ol>, <ul>, <dl>, and <li> tags with examples and syntax.

HTML Lists are used to specify lists of information. All lists may contain one or more list elements. There are three different types of HTML lists:

  1. Ordered List or Numbered List (ol)
  2. Unordered List or Bulleted List (ul)
  3. Description List or Definition List (dl)

HTML List Tags

Tag Description
<ul> Defines an unordered list
<ol> Defines an ordered list
<li> Defines a list item
<dl> Defines a description list
<dt> Defines a term in a description list
<dd> Describes the term in a description list

HTML Ordered List

The HTML <ol> tag defines an ordered list. An ordered list can be numerical or alphabetical.

An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

The list items will be marked with numbers by default:

Example:

<ol>
  <li>Item</li>
  <li>Item</li>
  <li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Ordered List example

HTML Unordered List

The HTML <ul> tag defines an unordered (bulleted) list.

An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

The list items will be marked with bullets (small black circles) by default:

Example:

<ul>
  <li>Item</li>
  <li>Item</li>
  <li>Item</li>
</ul>

Output:

Unordered List example

HTML Description Lists

HTML also supports description lists.

A description list is a list of terms, with a description of each term.

The <dl> tag defines the description list, the <dt> tag defines the term (name), and the <dd> tag describes each term:

Example:

<dl>
	<dt>Item</dt>
	<dd>Sub Item</dd>
	<dt>Item</dt>
	<dd>Sub Item</dd>
</dl>

Output:

Description List example

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