The CSS universal selector (*
) matches elements of any type.
/* Selects all elements */ * { color: green; }
Beginning with CSS3, the asterisk may be used in combination with namespaces
:
ns|*
- matches all elements in namespace ns*|*
- matches all elements|*
- matches all elements without any declared namespace
Syntax
* { style properties }
The asterisk is optional with simple selectors. For instance, *.warning
and .warning
are equivalent.
Examples
CSS
* [lang^=en] { color: green; } *.warning { color: red; } *#maincontent { border: 1px solid blue; } .floating { float: left } /* automatically clear the next sibling after a floating element */ .floating + * { clear: left; }
HTML
<p class="warning"> <span lang="en-us">A green span</span> in a red paragraph. </p> <p id="maincontent" lang="en-gb"> <span class="warning">A red span</span> in a green paragraph. </p>
Result
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
Selectors Level 4 The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification. |
Working Draft | No changes |
Selectors Level 3 The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Defines behavior regarding namespaces and adds hint that omitting the selector is allowed within pseudo-elements |
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on 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.
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Universal selector (* ) | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support 7 | Opera Full support 3.5 | Safari Full support 1 | WebView Android Full support ≤37 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support 10.1 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
Namespaces (*|* ) | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support 9 | Opera Full support 8 | Safari Full support 1.3 | WebView Android Full support ≤37 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support 10.1 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support