css properties transition-delay

The transition-delay CSS property specifies the duration to wait before starting a property's transition effect when its value changes.

The delay may be zero, positive, or negative:

You may specify multiple delays, which is useful when transitioning multiple properties. Each delay will be applied to the corresponding property as specified by the transition-property property, which acts as a master list. If there are fewer delays specified than in the master list, the list of delay values will be repeated until there are enough. If there are more delays, the list of delay values will be truncated to match the number of properties. In both cases, the CSS declaration remains valid.

Syntax

/* <time> values */
transition-delay: 3s;
transition-delay: 2s, 4ms;

/* Global values */
transition-delay: inherit;
transition-delay: initial;
transition-delay: revert;
transition-delay: revert-layer;
transition-delay: unset;

Values

<time>

Denotes the amount of time to wait between a property's value changing and the start of the transition effect.

Formal definition

Initial value0s
Applies toall elements
Inheritedno
Computed valuelist, each item a duration
Animation typenot animatable

Formal syntax

<time>#

Examples

Example showing different delays

HTML

<div class="box delay-1">0.5 seconds</div>

<div class="box delay-2">2 seconds</div>

<div class="box delay-3">4 seconds</div>

<button id="change">Change</button>

CSS

.box {
  margin: 20px;
  padding: 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: red;
  font-size: 18px;
  transition-property: background-color, font-size, transform, color;
  transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  transition-duration: 3s;
}

.transformed-state {
  transform: rotate(270deg);
  background-color: blue;
  color: yellow;
  font-size: 12px;
  transition-property: background-color, font-size, transform, color;
  transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;
  transition-duration: 3s;
}

.delay-1 {
  transition-delay: 0.5s;
}

.delay-2 {
  transition-delay: 2s;
}

.delay-3 {
  transition-delay: 4s;
}

JavaScript

function change() {
  const elements = document.querySelectorAll("div.box");
  for (const element of elements) {
    element.classList.toggle("transformed-state");
  }
}

const changeButton = document.querySelector("#change");
changeButton.addEventListener("click", change);

See also