CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a language that describes how structured documents such as HTML and XML should look when rendered on screens, paper, and other media. In short, HTML or XML supplies the document’s structure and meaning; CSS supplies its presentation.
What does CSS mean?
A style sheet is a set of rules describing how a document should be presented. A browser or other user agent reads those rules alongside the source document and uses them to determine the rendered appearance. CSS can style content for different media, including screens and print. The W3C’s CSS Snapshot 2026 defines CSS as a language for writing style sheets designed to describe the rendering of structured documents such as HTML and XML.
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What is CSS used for?
CSS controls presentation: for example, the visual formatting of elements in a web page. The source document language still carries the document’s structure and semantics. CSS usually changes how that content is presented, not what the underlying content means. This separation lets authors describe content in HTML or XML and define its appearance in a style sheet.
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A CSS rule pairs a selector with a block of declarations. The selector identifies which elements the rule applies to; each declaration sets a property to a value. When more than one applicable rule sets the same property for an element, the browser uses the cascade to resolve the conflict.
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The cascade evaluates declarations in stages: it filters for relevance, considers origin and importance, compares specificity, considers scoping proximity, and then uses order of appearance if earlier criteria do not resolve the conflict. This is why the last rule does not always win: source order is only decisive after the earlier cascade criteria.
MDN’s CSS cascade guide explains these stages and how they determine the value that applies.
Is CSS a programming language?
CSS is a style sheet language: its role is to describe presentation and rendering. It is not the language that gives an HTML document its structure or semantics. For a basic definition, calling CSS a language for styling structured documents is more precise than treating it as the document’s content or structure.
Is CSS3 the current version?
There is no single modern release that contains all of CSS as “CSS3” or “CSS4.” After CSS Level 2, the specifications became modular, and individual modules progress at their own levels. The W3C publishes snapshots that collect specifications considered stable enough for the snapshot’s scope.
The W3C CSS Snapshot 2026 is a Group Note published on 22 June 2026. Its inclusion of a specification reflects stability, not proof that every feature is implemented in every browser. MDN likewise notes that CSS does not advance as one unified CSS3 or CSS4 specification in its CSS overview.
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