Clarify specificity as value

[caio-bittencourt]

Description

Clarifies that specificity is a value (weight) computed by the specificity algorithm and used in the cascade, removing wording that implied specificity itself is an algorithm.

Motivation

The current phrasing is conceptually inconsistent and can confuse readers. This makes the explanation more precise and aligns with how the cascade uses specificity values.

Additional details

N/A

Related issues and pull requests

Fixes #44000

[hamishwillee]

This sounds correct/better to me, but I'm not a CSS expert. @estelle Can you please look at this?

[github-actions]

Preview URLs (1 page)

• /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Cascade/Specificity

Flaws (5)

Found an unexpected or unresolvable flaw? Please report it here.

URL: /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Cascade/Specificity
Title: Specificity
Flaw count: 5

• macros:
  • Macro cssxref produces link /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Universal_selectors which is a redirect
  • Macro cssxref produces link /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Next-sibling_combinator which is a redirect
  • Macro cssxref produces link /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Child_combinator which is a redirect
  • Macro cssxref produces link /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Subsequent-sibling_combinator which is a redirect
  • Macro cssxref produces link /en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Column_combinator which is a redirect

(comment last updated: 2026-05-12 09:34:58)

[estelle]

Thank you for the PR. This is a topic where we have to be super pedantic in translating something that is pretty complex. While the spec doesn't use the term "weight", to make people understand the topic, it makes sense to use that word. Similarly, the spec doesn't use columns or dashes, but, again, to make people understand, it makes sense to use those terms, but we can't say that that is how user agents do it. We also have to always be clear that specificity is only relevant within the a single origin layer (and scope?). I think my feed back does that.

[estelle]

Thank you, and congratulations on your first merged MDN content PR.

Just a pointer for future PRs:
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Thanks. Welcome to the team!

[github-actions]

[mdn-linter] _{reported by reviewdog 🐶}

Suggested change

**Specificity** is the weight that browsers use in the cascade algorithm to determine the [CSS declaration](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/What_is_CSS#css_syntax_basics) that is the most relevant to an element, which in turn, determines the property value to apply to the element. The specificity algorithm calculates this weight from a [CSS selector](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference#selectors), and compares the resulting values to decide which rule, from competing CSS declarations within the same origin and layer, gets applied to an element.

**Specificity** is the weight that browsers use in the cascade algorithm to determine the [CSS declaration](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/What_is_CSS#css_syntax_basics) that is the most relevant to an element, which in turn, determines the property value to apply to the element. The specificity algorithm calculates this weight from a [CSS selector](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference#selectors), and compares the resulting values to decide which rule, from competing CSS declarations within the same origin and layer, gets applied to an element.

[github-actions]

[mdn-linter] _{reported by reviewdog 🐶}

Suggested change

The specificity value is basically a three-column value of three categories or weights - ID, CLASS, and TYPE - corresponding to the three types of selectors. The value represents the count of selector components in each weight category and is written as _ID - CLASS - TYPE_. The three columns are created by counting the number of selector components for each selector weight category in the selectors that match the element.

The specificity value is basically a three-column value of three categories or weights - ID, CLASS, and TYPE - corresponding to the three types of selectors. The value represents the count of selector components in each weight category and is written as _ID - CLASS - TYPE_. The three columns are created by counting the number of selector components for each selector weight category in the selectors that match the element.