:first-of-type

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The :first-of-type CSS pseudo-class represents the first element of its type (tag name) among a group of sibling elements.

Try it

dt {
  font-weight: bold;
}

dd {
  margin: 3px;
}

dd:first-of-type {
  border: 2px solid orange;
}

<dl>
  <dt>Vegetables:</dt>
  <dd>1. Tomatoes</dd>
  <dd>2. Cucumbers</dd>
  <dd>3. Mushrooms</dd>
  <dt>Fruits:</dt>
  <dd>4. Apples</dd>
  <dd>5. Mangos</dd>
  <dd>6. Pears</dd>
  <dd>7. Oranges</dd>
</dl>

Syntax

:first-of-type {
  /* ... */
}

Examples

Styling the first paragraph

HTML

<h2>Heading</h2>
<p>Paragraph 1</p>
<p>Paragraph 2</p>

CSS

p:first-of-type {
  color: red;
  font-style: italic;
}

Result

Nested elements

This example shows how nested elements can also be targeted. Note that the universal selector (*) is implied when no type selector is written.

HTML

<article>
  <div>This `div` is first!</div>
  <div>This <span>nested `span` is first</span>!</div>
  <div>
    This <em>nested `em` is first</em>, but this <em>nested `em` is last</em>!
  </div>
  <div>This <span>nested `span` gets styled</span>!</div>
  <p>This `p` qualifies!</p>
  <div>This is the final `div`.</div>
</article>

CSS

article :first-of-type {
  background-color: pink;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
Selectors Level 4
# first-of-type-pseudo

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android
:first-of-type 1
12Before Edge 16, Microsoft Edge treats all unknown elements (such as custom elements) as the same element type.
 3.5 9.5 3.1 18 4 10.1 2 1.0 2

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:first-of-type