Title: the_archive_description
Published: December 18, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# the_archive_description( string $before, string $after )

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#changelog)
 * [User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Displays category, tag, term, or author description.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [get_the_archive_description()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_the_archive_description/)

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$before`stringoptional

Content to prepend to the description. Default empty.

`$after`stringoptional

Content to append to the description. Default empty.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    function the_archive_description( $before = '', $after = '' ) {
    	$description = get_the_archive_description();
    	if ( $description ) {
    		echo $before . $description . $after;
    	}
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/general-template.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/general-template.php#L1822)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/general-template.php#L1822-L1827)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [get_the_archive_description()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_the_archive_description/)`wp-includes/general-template.php` |

Retrieves the description for an author, post type, or term archive.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [4.1.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.1.0/) | Introduced. |

## 󠀁[User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)󠁿

 1.   [Skip to note 3 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#comment-content-1904)
 2.    [rabmalin](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rabmalin/)  [  10 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/#comment-1904)
 3.  [You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%23comment-1904)
     Vote results for this note: 3[You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%23comment-1904)
 4.  **Display archive description.**
 5.      ```php
         the_archive_description( '<div class="taxonomy-description">', '</div>' );
         ```
     
 6.   [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%3Freplytocom%3D1904%23feedback-editor-1904)
 7.   [Skip to note 4 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/?output_format=md#comment-content-2045)
 8.    [Anthony Hortin](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ahortin/)  [  9 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_description/#comment-2045)
 9.  [You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%23comment-2045)
     Vote results for this note: 0[You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%23comment-2045)
 10. See Also
      [the_archive_title()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_archive_title/)–
     Display the archive title based on the queried object
 11.  [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Ffunctions%2Fthe_archive_description%2F%3Freplytocom%3D2045%23feedback-editor-2045)

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