transition-delay CSS property

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

Try it

transition-delay: 250ms;
transition-property: margin-right;
transition-delay: 1s;
transition-property: background-color;
transition-delay: 1s;
transition-property: margin-right, color;
transition-delay: 1s, 250ms;
transition-property: margin-right, color;
<section id="default-example">
  <div id="example-element">Hover to see<br />the transition.</div>
</section>
#example-element {
  background-color: #e4f0f5;
  color: black;
  padding: 1rem;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  font: 1em monospace;
  width: 100%;
  transition: margin-right 2s;
}

#default-example:hover > #example-element {
  background-color: #990099;
  color: white;
  margin-right: 40%;
}

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

css
/* <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, ::before and ::after pseudo-elements
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typeNot animatable

Formal syntax

transition-delay = 
  <time>#

Examples

undefined

Example showing different delays

HTML

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

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

js
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);

Result

Specifications

See also