<defs>

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 <defs> SVG element is used to store graphical objects that will be used at a later time. Objects created inside a <defs> element are not rendered directly. To display them you have to reference them (with a <use> element for example).

Graphical objects can be referenced from anywhere, however, defining these objects inside of a <defs> element promotes understandability of the SVG content and is beneficial to the overall accessibility of the document.

Usage context

Categories	Container element, Structural element
Permitted content	Any number of the following elements, in any order: Animation elements Descriptive elements Shape elements Structural elements Gradient elements `<a>`, `<clipPath>`, `<filter>`, `<foreignObject>`, `<image>`, `<marker>`, `<mask>`, `<pattern>`, `<script>`, `<style>`, `<switch>`, `<text>`, `<view>`

html,
body,
svg {
  height: 100%;
}

html

<svg viewBox="0 0 10 10" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <!-- Some graphical objects to use -->
  <defs>
    <circle id="myCircle" cx="0" cy="0" r="5" />

    <linearGradient id="myGradient" gradientTransform="rotate(90)">
      <stop offset="20%" stop-color="gold" />
      <stop offset="90%" stop-color="red" />
    </linearGradient>
  </defs>

  <!-- using my graphical objects -->
  <use x="5" y="5" href="#myCircle" fill="url('#myGradient')" />
</svg>