sub
and sup
elementsHTMLElement
.The sup
element represents a superscript and the sub
element represents a subscript.
These elements must be used only to mark up typographical conventions with specific meanings, not for typographical presentation for presentation's sake. For example, it would be inappropriate for the sub
and sup
elements to be used in the name of the LaTeX document preparation system. In general, authors should use these elements only if the absence of those elements would change the meaning of the content.
In certain languages, superscripts are part of the typographical conventions for some abbreviations.
<p>The most beautiful women are <span lang="fr"><abbr>M<sup>lle</sup></abbr> Gwendoline</span> and <span lang="fr"><abbr>M<sup>me</sup></abbr> Denise</span>.</p>
The sub
element can be used inside a var
element, for variables that have subscripts.
Here, the sub
element is used to represents the subscript that identifies the variable in a family of variables:
<p>The coordinate of the <var>i</var>th point is (<var>x<sub><var>i</var></sub></var>, <var>y<sub><var>i</var></sub></var>). For example, the 10th point has coordinate (<var>x<sub>10</sub></var>, <var>y<sub>10</sub></var>).</p>
Mathematical expressions often use subscripts and superscripts. Authors are encouraged to use MathML for marking up mathematics, but authors may opt to use sub
and sup
if detailed mathematical markup is not desired. [MATHML]
<var>E</var>=<var>m</var><var>c</var><sup>2</sup>
f(<var>x</var>, <var>n</var>) = log<sub>4</sub><var>x</var><sup><var>n</var></sup>