The VAR element is one of a large group of elements that the HTML 4.0 recommendation calls phrase elements. Such elements assign structural meaning to a designated portion of the document. A VAR element is one that is used predominantly to display one or more inline characters representing a computer program variable name.

Browsers have free rein to determine how (or whether) to distinguish VAR element content from the rest of the BODY element. Both Navigator and Internet Explorer elect to render VAR element content in an italic font. This rendering can be overridden with a style sheet as you see fit.