<s>

The HTML <s> 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.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Example

<s>Today's Special: Salmon</s> SOLD OUT<br>
<span style="text-decoration:line-through;">Today's Special:
  Salmon</span> SOLD OUT

Result

Today's Special: Salmon SOLD OUT
Today's Special: Salmon SOLD OUT

Accessibility concerns

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.

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.

• Short note on making your mark (more accessible) | The Paciello Group
• Tweaking Text Level Styles | Adrian Roselli

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See Also

• The <strike> element, alter ego of the <s> element is obsolete and should not be used on Web sites any more.
• 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.