<s>: The Strikethrough element

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <s> HTML element renders text with a strikethrough, or a line through it. Use the <s> element to represent things that are no longer relevant or no longer accurate. However, <s> is not appropriate when indicating document edits; for that, use the <del> and <ins> elements, as appropriate.

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Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Accessibility

The presence of the s element is not announced by most screen reading technology in its default configuration. It can be made to be announced by using the CSS content property, along with the ::before and ::after pseudo-elements.

css
s::before,
s::after {
  clip-path: inset(100%);
  clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  white-space: nowrap;
  width: 1px;
}

s::before {
  content: " [start of stricken text] ";
}

s::after {
  content: " [end of stricken text] ";
}

Some people who use screen readers deliberately disable announcing content that creates extra verbosity. Because of this, it is important to not abuse this technique and only apply it in situations where not knowing content has been struck out would adversely affect understanding.

Examples

css
.sold-out {
  text-decoration: line-through;
}
html
<s>Today's Special: Salmon</s> SOLD OUT<br />
<span class="sold-out">Today's Special: Salmon</span> SOLD OUT

Result

Technical summary

Content categories Phrasing content, flow 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 deletion
Permitted ARIA roles Any
DOM interface HTMLElement

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# the-s-element

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also

  • The <strike> element, alter ego of the <s> element, is obsolete and should not be used on websites anymore.
  • The <del> element is to be used instead if the data has been deleted.
  • The CSS text-decoration-line property is to be used to achieve the former visual aspect of the <s> element.