Is there a fast way in CSS to remove all of the styles applied

Question

Asked: May 17, 20262026-05-17T19:27:53+00:00 2026-05-17T19:27:53+00:00

Is there a fast way in CSS to remove all of the styles applied to an element? For example, say a tab menu of some sort:

<div class='outer'>
  <div id='d1'></div>
  <div id='d2'></div>
  <div id='d3'></div>
  <div id='d4'></div>
</div>

The CSS is applied…

.outer { foo:blee; bar:blah; bas-bloo:snork; /*...long long list...*/ }

Now, I want #d3 (for example) to return to default styling, but I don’t want to explicitly unset all of the parent styles:

#d3 { remove-styles:all } /* <- [I made this up, obviously] */

Pipe dream or possibility?

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Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-05-17T19:27:54+00:00

Editorial Team

In CSS3, yes. You could use the negation pseudo-class:

.outer:not(#d3) { foo:blee; etc etc }

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