index.md

---
title: Physical properties
slug: Glossary/Physical_properties
page-type: glossary-definition
sidebar: glossarysidebar
---

CSS **physical properties** define positions based on physical directions or element sides. For example:

- The {{Glossary("inset properties")}} {{cssxref("top")}}, {{cssxref("right")}}, {{cssxref("bottom")}}, and {{cssxref("left")}} refer to the physical dimensions of the viewport.
- Features such as {{cssxref("margin-top")}}, {{cssxref("border-right")}}, {{cssxref("padding-bottom")}}, and {{cssxref("border-bottom-left-radius")}} reference specific sides of an element, and style features by that physical direction.

This is opposed to {{glossary("logical properties")}}, which are relative to the content flow and use directional keywords relative to the block and inline axes.

## See also

- [CSS positioned layout](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Positioned_layout) module
- [CSS box model](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Box_model) module
- [CSS box sizing](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Box_sizing) module