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MediaWiki is able to parse some HTML tags in wikitext. Brackets for other tags are escaped and the tags are displayed instead of being parsed.

Allowed HTML tags and attributes

Allowed HTML tags and attributes in MediaWiki software
Tag	Meaning	Allowed attributes	Tag allowed since…	Notes
`‎<abbr>`	Abbreviation	Common attributes	1.16
`‎<b>`	Bring attention	Common attributes	1.1	Wikitext: three single quotes, e.g. `Be careful to '''this text'''`.
`‎<bdi>`	Bidirectional isolate	Common attributes	1.20
`‎<bdo>`	Bidirectional text override	Common attributes	1.22
`‎<big>`	Make text bigger	Common attributes	1.1	`‎<big>` is deprecated in HTML, but not in wikitext (T154067)
`‎<blockquote>`	Block quotation	Common attributes + `cite`	1.1
`‎<br>`	Line break	Common attributes + `clear`	1.1
`‎<caption>`	Table caption	Common attributes + `align`	1.1
`‎<cite>`	Citation, i.e. reference to a cited creative work.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<code>`	Inline computer code	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<col>`		Common attributes + `span`
`‎<colgroup>`		Common attributes + `span`
`‎<data>`	Data, linked to machine-readable translation through `value` attribute.	Common attributes + `value`	1.21
`‎<dd>`	Description details for a description term element, inside a description list.	Common attributes	1.1	Wikitext: `:` starting the line, respectively for description list details.
`‎<del>`	Deleted text	Common attributes + `cite`, `datetime`	1.3
`‎<dfn>`	Definition. Wrap a term/phrase which is being defined.	Common attributes	1.17
`‎<div>`	Content division, to apply CSS formatting to a block.	Common attributes + `align`	1.1
`‎<dl>`	Description list.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<dt>`	Description term, inside a description list.	Common attributes	1.1	Wikitext: `;` starting the line, respectively for description list term.
`‎<em>`	Emphasis	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<h1>`	Section heading – levels 1 to 6	Common attributes + `align`	1.1	Wikitext: pairs of equal signs (see help about formatting). Note when you edit a section headed by an HTML heading, the edit summary will not be prefilled.
`‎<hr>`	Thematic break	Common attributes + `width`	1.1	Wikitext: 4+ dashes (`----`) starting a line.
`‎<i>`	Idiomatic text	Common attributes	1.1	Wikitext: two single quotes, e.g. `''idiomatic text''`.
`‎<ins>`	Added text	Common attributes + `cite`, `datetime`	1.3
`‎<kbd>`	Keyboard input	Common attributes	1.17
`‎<li>`	List item	Common attributes + `type`, `value`	1.1	Wikitext: `#` or `*` starting the line, respectively for ordered list and unordered list.
`‎<link>`	External resource link	`itemprop`, `href`, `title`	1.27	Must have `itemprop` and `href` attributes set.^[1] Excludes most values for `rel`, including the `stylesheet` value.
`‎<mark>`	Marked or highlighted text.	Common attributes	1.21
`‎<meta>`	Metadata	`itemprop`, `content`	1.27	Must have `itemprop` and `content` attributes set.^[1]
`‎<ol>`	Ordered list	Common attributes + `type`, `start`, `reversed`	1.1
`‎<p>`	Paragraph	Common attributes + `align`	1.1	Wikitext: text between empty lines.
`‎<pre>`	Preformatted text	Common attributes + `width`	1.1	Content is not parsed, as in a `‎<nowiki>` tag. Wikitext: line starting with a blank space, i.e. `preformatted text`.
`‎<q>`	Inline quotation	Common attributes + `cite`	1.22
`‎<rp>`	Ruby fallback parenthesis	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<rt>`	Ruby text: annotation rendered near the base text. Inside a `ruby` tag.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<ruby>`	Ruby annotation. Encloses `rt` and `rp`.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<s>`	Strikethrough, for no longer accurate or relevant text.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<samp>`	Sample output, inline ouput text of a computer program.	Common attributes	1.17
`‎<small>`	Side comment.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<span>`	Content span, to apply CSS formatting to an inline text.	Common attributes	1.4
`‎<strong>`	Strong importance.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<sub>`	Subscript	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<sup>`	Superscript	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<table>`	Table, for tabular data.	Common attributes + `summary`, `width`, `border`, `frame`, `rules`, `cellspacing`, `cellpadding`, `align`, `bgcolor`	1.1	Wikitext: see help page about tables.
`‎<td>`	Table data cell, inside a `tr` tag.	Common attributes + `abbr`, `axis`, `headers`, `scope`, `rowspan`, `colspan`, `nowrap`, `width`, `height`, `bgcolor`, `align`, `valign`	1.1	Wikitext: see help page about tables.
`‎<th>`	Table header cell, inside a `tr` tag	Common attributes + `abbr`, `axis`, `headers`, `scope`, `rowspan`, `colspan`, `nowrap`, `width`, `height`, `bgcolor`, `align`, `valign`	1.1	Wikitext: see help page about tables.
`‎<time>`	Date/Time	Common attributes + `datetime`	1.21
`‎<tr>`	Table row, inside a `table` tag.	Common attributes + `bgcolor`, `align`, `valign`	1.1	Wikitext: see help page about tables.
`‎<u>`	Unarticulated annotation.	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<ul>`	Unordered list.	Common attributes + `type`	1.1
`‎<var>`	Variable	Common attributes	1.1
`‎<wbr>`	Line break opportunity.	Common attributes	1.22

Common attributes

The following attributes are permitted on almost all tags listed in the table above (except meta and link):

HTML
- id
- class
- style
- lang
- dir
- title
- tabindex
WAI-ARIA
- aria-describedby
- aria-flowto
- aria-hidden
- aria-label
- aria-labelledby
- aria-level
- aria-owns
- role
RDFa
- about
- property
- resource
- datatype
- typeof
Microdata
- itemid
- itemprop
- itemref
- itemscope
- itemtype

Deprecated tags

The following tags are parsed by MediaWiki, but they are obsolete in HTML 5. They should be replaced with one of above tags. You might add a style attribute to reproduce the expected display.

HTML tags deprecated in MediaWiki
Tag	Allowed since…	Emits Lint error?
`‎<center>`	1.1	Yes
`‎<font>`	1.1	Yes
`‎<rb>`	1.1	No
`‎<rtc>`	1.24	No
`‎<strike>`	1.1	Yes
`‎<tt>`	1.1	Yes

Use cases

Anchor

To create a linkable anchor, you can use any HTML tag with an id attribute.

E.g. <span id="note2"></span> allows you to create a link to its location on the page using [[#note2|See relevant note]].

CSS formatting

With style attribute

Using HTML tag instead of wikitext equivalent allows you to add a style attribute to define a custom display through CSS language.

With class and id attributes

Thanks to TemplateStyles, you may add a custom stylesheet to the document. So it is useful to add class or id attributes to the elements you want to customize their display.

Overridden HTML syntax

HTML comments

Wikitext uses HTML comment syntax for its own comments. These comments are ignored by the parser and are not included in the output HTML — not even as HTML comments.

<!-- This text is a wikitext comment. After saving, it will be kept in wikitext source but will not be displayed, neither rendered in HTML source. -->

pre tag

The content of a pre tag is not parsed, as in a ‎<nowiki> tag.

You have to use the equivalent wikitext syntax to allow the content parsing. i.e. start each line with a blank space:

 Some preformatted text which can contain wikitext, i.e. ''this idiomatic text'' will be parsed.
 Other line.

to output:

Some preformatted text which can contain wikitext, i.e. this idiomatic text will be parsed.
Other line.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Parser\Sanitizer::validateTag()

[validateTags-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Parser\Sanitizer::validateTag()

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