CSSPseudoElement: element property

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The element read-only property of the CSSPseudoElement interface returns a reference to the originating element of the pseudo-element, in other words its parent element.

Value

An Element representing the pseudo-element's originating element.

Examples

The example below demonstrates the relationship between CSSPseudoElement.element and Element.pseudo():

js
const myElement = document.querySelector("q");
const cssPseudoElement = myElement.pseudo("::after");
const originatingElement = cssPseudoElement.element;

console.log(myElement === originatingElement); // Outputs true
console.log(myElement.parentElement === originatingElement); // Outputs false
console.log(myElement.lastElementChild === cssPseudoElement); // Outputs false
console.log(myElement.lastChild === cssPseudoElement); // Outputs false
console.log(myElement.nextElementSibling === cssPseudoElement); // Outputs false
console.log(myElement.nextSibling === cssPseudoElement); // Outputs false

Specifications

Specification
CSS Pseudo-Elements Module Level 4
# dom-csspseudoelement-element

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
element
Experimental

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

No support
No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
User must explicitly enable this feature.

See also