The <bdo> element (Bi-Directional Override) overrides the current directionality of text, so that the text within is rendered in a different direction.

The text's characters are drawn from the starting point in the given direction; the individual characters' orientation is not affected (so characters don't get drawn backward, for example).

It has a dir attribute to specify the direction in which text should be rendered in this element's contents. Possible values are:

• ltr: Indicates that the text should go in a left-to-right direction.
• rtl: Indicates that the text should go in a right-to-left direction.

Most browsers will display the <bdo> element with the following default CSS value:

bdo {
  unicode-bidi: bidi-override;
}

• Type: inline
• Self-closing: No
• Semantic value: No

Definition and example | Support