Which HTML element aligns content both horizontally and vertically to the center of the table cell by default?

Question

Options

• A<tr>
• B<td>
• C<th>
• D<pre>

• A
  5% (2)
• B
  3% (1)
• C
  89% (33)
• D
  3% (1)

Explanation

<th> (table header) is the only table cell element that browsers render with both horizontal centering (text-align: center) and vertical centering (vertical-align: middle) applied by default, along with bold text. <td> is the most tempting distractor - it does vertically center content by default, but its horizontal alignment defaults to left, not center. <tr> defines a table row rather than a cell, so it holds no direct content and has no centering behavior. <pre> is entirely unrelated to tables - it preserves whitespace and uses a monospace font. Memory tip: Think "H for Header = Horizontally centered" - the <th> element is the headline of its column, so browsers emphasize it with bold + full centering by default, unlike the plain <td>.

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