Parenthesises are used by Emmets’ power users for grouping subtrees in complex abbreviations: div>(header>ul>li* 2>a)+footer>p With * operator you can define how many times element should be outputted: ul>li*5 You can use as many ^ operators as you like, each operator will move one level up: div+ div>p>span+em^^^bq With ^ operator, you can climb one level up the tree and change context where following elements should appear: div+ div>p>span+em^bq With > operator you’re descending down the generated tree and positions of all sibling elements will be resolved against the most deepest element: div+ div>p>span+em Use + operator to place elements near each other, on the same level: div+p+bq You can use > operator to nest elements inside each other: div>ul>li Nesting operators are used to position abbreviation elements inside generated tree: whether it should be placed inside or near the context element. Emmet doesn’t have a predefined set of available tag names, you can write any word and transform it into a tag: div →, foo → and so on. You can use elements’ names like div or p to generate HTML tags. Emmet uses syntax similar to CSS selectors for describing elements’ positions inside generated tree and elements’ attributes.