Understanding CSS Specificity, Cascade, and Inheritance
Jul 29, 2025 am 04:01 AM

What Is CSS Specificity?
<p>Specificity is a scoring system that determines which CSS rule wins when there’s a conflict. The browser calculates a weight for each selector, and the one with the highest score applies its styles. <p>Here’s how specificity is calculated (from highest to lowest priority):
-
Inline styles – e.g.,
style="color: red;"
→ 1000 points -
ID selectors – e.g.,
#header
→ 100 points -
Class selectors, attributes, and pseudo-classes – e.g.,
.btn
,[type="text"]
,:hover
→ 10 points -
Element selectors and pseudo-elements – e.g.,
p
,::before
→ 1 point
#nav .link:hover { color: blue; } /* 100 10 10 = 120 */ div.header a { color: red; } /* 1 10 1 = 12 */<p>Even though both target the same link, the first rule wins due to higher specificity.

<p>?? Tip: Avoid using !important
unless absolutely necessary—it overrides specificity and makes debugging harder.
How the Cascade Resolves Conflicts
<p>The cascade is the algorithm CSS uses to decide which styles apply when multiple rules could apply to an element. It considers three factors in order:- Importance – Styles marked with
!important
(not recommended) - Specificity – As explained above
- Source order – If two rules have equal importance and specificity, the one that appears later in the CSS wins
p { color: green; } p { color: purple; }<p>Even though both have the same specificity, the paragraph will be purple because it comes last.<p>The cascade also considers where styles come from:
- Author styles (your CSS)
- User styles (custom styles set by the user)
- User agent styles (browser defaults)
!important
in user styles can override them.What Is Inheritance in CSS?
<p>Inheritance allows certain CSS properties to be passed down from parent elements to their children. Not all properties inherit—only those that make sense in a hierarchical context.<p>Common inherited properties:color
font-family
,font-size
,font-weight
text-align
line-height
margin
,padding
,border
width
,height
position
,display
<div class="text"> <p>This paragraph inherits the parent's font.</p> </div>
.text { font-family: Arial; color: gray; }<p>The
<p>
will display in Arial and gray, even without explicit styling.<p>You can control inheritance using special keyword values:inherit
– forces a property to inherit from its parentinitial
– resets a property to its default valueunset
– removes the value (acts likeinherit
if the property normally inherits,initial
otherwise)
p { text-align: unset; /* Removes alignment, behaves based on property */ }
Putting It All Together
<p>Imagine this scenario:<p class="intro">Hello World</p>
p { color: blue; } .intro { color: red; } p { color: green; }<p>Here’s how the browser decides:
-
Cascade source order: Two
p
rules, but green comes last -
Specificity:
.intro
has higher specificity (10) thanp
(1) - Result: The text is red
.intro
wins due to higher specificity.
<p>Understanding specificity, the cascade, and inheritance isn’t just about memorizing rules—it’s about writing CSS that behaves predictably. Use simple selectors when possible, avoid
!important
, and always consider how styles flow through your document.
<p>Basically, CSS follows a clear hierarchy: specificity breaks ties, the cascade manages order, and inheritance passes down certain styles naturally. Get these right, and your styling life gets a lot easier.The above is the detailed content of Understanding CSS Specificity, Cascade, and Inheritance. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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