Wurzelelement

Wurzelelement, in German terminology, refers to the root element of a structured document or tree. In practice it is the single top‑level element that contains all other elements within the document, and it is often called the document element in English. The term is commonly used in XML and related technologies, but the concept also applies to tree data structures and the Document Object Model (DOM).

In XML the Wurzelelement has special importance. A well-formed XML document must have exactly one root element, which encloses all other elements and content. The root element has no parent and provides the primary namespace context for the document. It may carry attributes and namespace declarations, which can affect the interpretation of its descendants. The choice of root element name often reflects the document’s domain or schema.

In HTML and XHTML, the root element is typically the html element, which contains the head and body sections. The root defines the scope of the document’s structure and styling, and, in the DOM, is accessible as the documentElement property.

Beyond XML and HTML, the concept appears in general tree data structures, where the root is the origin node from which all other nodes descend. The root has no parent and is the starting point for traversal and hierarchical organization.

Example: a simple XML document might have <library> as its Wurzelelement, with nested <book> elements inside.