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Web Development vocabulary · CSS and Layout

Selector

Meaning in web development, with examples

/sɪˈlektər/nounCore term

In web development, selector means: The part of a CSS rule that says which elements the styles apply to, for example p, .button or #header.

In Turkish: seçici, selector

How it is used

Developers write, combine and simplify selectors, and the same selectors are used in JavaScript with querySelector(). Common types are element, class, ID, attribute and pseudo-class selectors.

Example sentences

  1. This selector is too specific; just use the class name.

  2. The test fails because the selector no longer matches any element.

Common collocations

  • CSS selector
  • class selector
  • ID selector
  • match a selector
  • complex selector
  • CSSCascading Style Sheets: the language that controls how HTML looks, including colors, fonts, spacing, layout and animations.
  • classAn HTML attribute that gives an element one or more names, so that CSS and JavaScript can find and style a group of elements together.
  • specificityThe rule CSS uses to decide which style wins when several rules target the same element: ID selectors beat class selectors, which beat element selectors.
  • propertyIn CSS, the name of a style feature you set, such as color, margin or display, which is always paired with a value.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: CSS and Layout

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