<rp>: The Ruby Fallback Parenthesis element

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 <rp> HTML element is used to provide fall-back parentheses for browsers that do not support display of ruby annotations using the <ruby> element. One <rp> element should enclose each of the opening and closing parentheses that wrap the <rt> element that contains the annotation's text.

Try it

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Usage notes

  • Ruby annotations are for showing pronunciation of East Asian characters, like using Japanese furigana or Taiwanese bopomofo characters. The <rp> element is used in the case of lack of <ruby> element support; the <rp> content provides what should be displayed in order to indicate the presence of a ruby annotation, usually parentheses.

Examples

Using ruby annotations

This example uses ruby annotations to display the Romaji equivalents for each character.

html
<ruby><rp>(</rp><rt>Kan</rt><rp>)</rp><rp>(</rp><rt>ji</rt><rp>)</rp>
</ruby>

Result

See the article about the <ruby> element for further examples.

Without ruby support

If your browser does not support ruby annotations, the result looks like this instead:

Technical summary

Content categories None.
Permitted content Text
Tag omission The end tag can be omitted if the element is immediately followed by an <rt> or another <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
Permitted parents A <ruby> element. <rp> must be positioned immediately before or after an <rt> element.
Implicit ARIA role No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles Any
DOM interface HTMLElement

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# the-rp-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
rp

Legend

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

Full support
Full support

See also