DIR and MENU Lists

Two extra list types that always rendered exactly like an unordered list.

In 2026: DIR is gone from the spec and MENU came back in HTML5 for toolbars, then mostly went away again. Browsers render both as a plain bullet list, which is what they always did. This is redundancy that shipped and never earned its keep.

Where it came from: HTML 2.0 (RFC 1866), 1995. DIR deprecated in HTML 4.01. MDN ↗

<!-- Multi-column directory listing, in theory -->
<dir>
  <li>readme.txt
  <li>index.html
  <li>logo.gif
</dir>

<!-- Single-line menu items, in theory -->
<menu>
  <li>File
  <li>Edit
  <li>Help
</menu>

<!-- Both render as this, and always did -->
<ul><li>File<li>Edit<li>Help</ul>