“<” in attribute name. Probable cause: “>” missing immediately before.

A < character appearing where an attribute name is expected typically means a closing > is missing on the previous tag, causing the browser to interpret the next tag as an attribute.

This error occurs when you forget to close an HTML element’s opening tag with >. The validator sees the < of the next element and thinks it’s still parsing attributes of the previous element. It’s a common typo that can cascade into multiple confusing errors.

For example, if you write <div without the closing >, the following <p> tag gets parsed as if it were an attribute of the div, triggering this error.

HTML Examples

❌ Incorrect

<div class="container"
  <p>Hello, world!</p>
</div>

The <div> tag is missing its closing > after "container", so the validator sees <p> as part of the div‘s attribute list.

✅ Correct

<div class="container">
  <p>Hello, world!</p>
</div>

Make sure every opening tag is properly closed with >. If the error points to a specific line, check the tag immediately before that line for a missing >.

Learn more:

MDN Reference

HTML Syntax - Elements

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MDN Reference

HTML basics - Anatomy of an HTML element

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WHATWG Spec

The HTML syntax

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