i

Description

The <i> element represents text in an alternate voice, mood, or quality — a span of text that is offset from normal prose without conveying extra emphasis or importance. Common uses include foreign language phrases, technical terms, thoughts, and ship names.

VB styles <i> with font-synthesis: none to prevent faux italic glyphs and font-optical-sizing: auto for variable fonts. Inside blockquotes, italic is de-emphasized to prevent double visual offset.

When to Use

• Foreign words: et cetera, c'est la vie (add lang attribute)
• Thoughts: Internal monologue in fiction
• Ship names: USS Enterprise, Titanic
• Taxonomic names: Tyrannosaurus rex, Homo sapiens
• Technical terms: First use of a term in a non-definitional context

When NOT to Use

• For stress emphasis — use <em>
• For importance — use <strong>
• For defining terms — use <dfn>
• For work titles — use <cite>
• Purely for visual styling — use CSS font-style: italic

Examples

i vs em

Both render as italic, but they have different semantics:

CSS Reference

The blockquote reset prevents double visual offset — since the blockquote is already indented/styled, italic inside it uses font-weight: medium instead of font-style: italic.

Accessibility

• <i> does not convey emphasis to screen readers — it is purely visual
• For foreign words, always add the lang attribute so screen readers can switch pronunciation
• Do not rely on italic alone to convey meaning — combine with context

Related

• <em> — Stress emphasis that changes meaning
• <b> — Draw attention without importance (bold counterpart to <i>)
• <cite> — Titles of creative works (also italic)
• <dfn> — Defining instance of a term (italic + semi-bold)
• <strong> — Strong importance (bold counterpart to <em>)