Universal selectors

An asterisk (*) is the universal selector for CSS. It matches a single element of any type. Omitting the asterisk with simple selectors has the same effect. For instance, *.warning and .warning are considered equal.

In CSS 3, the asterisk may be used in combination with namespaces:

• ns|* - matches all elements in namespace ns
• *|* - matches all elements
• |* - matches all elements without any declared namespace

Examples

* [lang^=en] {
  color:green;
}

*.warning {
  color:red;
}

*#maincontent {
  border: 1px solid blue;
}

<p class="warning">
  <span lang="en-us">A green span</span> in a red paragraph.
</p>
<p id="maincontent" lang="en-gb">
  <span class="warning">A red span</span> in a green paragraph.
</p>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Selectors Level 4 The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Working Draft	No changes
Selectors Level 3 The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Recommendation	Defined behavior in regard of namespaces and added hint that omitting the selector is allowed within pseudo-elements
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'universal selector' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility