Cite

The HTML Cite element <cite> is used to describe a reference to a cited creative work, and must include the title of that work. The reference may be in an abbreviated form according to context-appropriate conventions related to citation metadata.

Note: Creative works include a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theatre production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhibition, a legal case report, a web site, a web page, a blog post or comment, a forum post or comment, a tweet, a written or oral statement, etc.

Here is an example of the most common usage of the cite element:

<cite>Monet and the Modern City</cite> is organized by Akemi May, assistant curator of fine arts at CMOA. 

This example shows the author of a quote referenced using the cite element:

  <p>In the words of <cite>Charles Bukowski</cite> -  
  <q>An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.</q></p> 

In this example the cite element is used to reference the title of a work in a bibliography:

<p><cite>Universal Declaration of Human Rights</cite>, United Nations,
December 1948. Adopted by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III).</p>

Visual Emphasis

The cite element should not be confused with other elements that typically provide visual emphasis to text, such as bold or italic. See Bold and Italic to learn more about visual emphasis.