Next-sibling combinator

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 next-sibling combinator (+) separates two selectors and matches the second element only if it immediately follows the first element, and both are children of the same parent element.

css
/* Paragraphs that come immediately after any image */
img + p {
  font-weight: bold;
}

Syntax

css
/* The white space around the + combinator is optional but recommended. */
former_element + target_element { style properties }

Examples

Basic usage

This example demonstrates how to select the next sibling if that next sibling is of a specific type.

CSS

We only style the <li> that comes immediately after an <li> that is the first of its type:

css
li:first-of-type + li {
  color: red;
  font-weight: bold;
}

HTML

html
<ul>
  <li>One</li>
  <li>Two!</li>
  <li>Three</li>
</ul>

Result

Selecting a previous sibling

The next-sibling combinator can be included within the :has() functional selector to select the previous sibling.

CSS

We only style the <li> with a next sibling that is an <li> that is the last of its type:

css
li:has(+ li:last-of-type) {
  color: red;
  font-weight: bold;
}

HTML

html
<ul>
  <li>One</li>
  <li>Two</li>
  <li>Three!</li>
  <li>Four</li>
</ul>

Result

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# adjacent-sibling-combinators

Browser compatibility

See also