style precedence definition

Style precedence refers to the determination of which styles are ultimately selected and applied to the html elements of a website.  An XHTML or HTML document may include inline styles, import and link to several external style sheets, and include embedded stylesheets.  Rules from all these style sources may differ from one another, thus CSS uses the method of the cascade to determine which style takes precedence among these rules.  Specificity and inheritance are the main parts of the cascade system that determine style precedence.