:root

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 :root CSS pseudo-class matches the root element of a tree representing the document. In HTML, :root represents the <html> element and is identical to the selector html, except that its specificity is higher.

css
/* Selects the root element of the document:
   <html> in the case of HTML */
:root {
  background: yellow;
}

Syntax

css
:root {
  /* ... */
}

Examples

Declaring global CSS variables

:root can be useful for declaring global CSS variables:

css
:root {
  --main-color: hotpink;
  --pane-padding: 5px 42px;
}

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# root-pseudo

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
:root

Legend

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

Full support
Full support

See also