<bdi>

The HTML <bdi> element (bidirectional isolation) isolates a span of text that might be formatted in a different direction from other text outside it.

This element is useful when embedding text with an unknown directionality, from a database for example, inside text with a fixed directionality.

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content.
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	HTMLElement

Attributes

Like all other HTML elements, this element has the global attributes, with a slight semantic difference: the dir attribute is not inherited. If not set, its default value is the auto which let the browser decide the direction based on the element's content.

Usage notes

Though the same visual effect can be achieved using the CSS rule unicode-bidi: isolate on a <span> or another text-formatting element, the semantic meaning is only conveyed by the <bdi> element. Especially, browsers are allowed to ignore CSS styling. In such a case, the text would still be correctly displayed using the HTML element, but will become garbage when using the CSS styling to convey semantic.

Example

<p dir="ltr">This arabic word <bdi>ARABIC_PLACEHOLDER</bdi>
is automatically displayed right-to-left.</p>

Result

This arabic word REDLOHECALP_CIBARA is automatically displayed right-to-left.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of '<bdi>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5 The definition of '<bdi>' in that specification.	Recommendation

Browser compatibility

See also

• Related HTML element: <bdo>
• Related HTML properties: direction, unicode-bidi