Title: the_meta_key
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# apply_filters( ‘the_meta_key’, string $html, string $key, string $value )

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/the_meta_key/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/the_meta_key/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/the_meta_key/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/the_meta_key/?output_format=md#changelog)

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

Filters the HTML output of the li element in the post custom fields list.

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

 `$html`string

The HTML output for the li element.

`$key`string

Meta key.

`$value`string

Meta value.

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

    ```php
    $li_html .= apply_filters( 'the_meta_key', $html, $key, $value );
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/post-template.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/post-template.php#L1158)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/post-template.php#L1158-L1158)

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

| Used by | Description | 
| [the_meta()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_meta/)`wp-includes/post-template.php` |

Displays a list of post custom fields.

  |

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

| Version | Description | 
| [2.2.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.2.0/) | Introduced. |

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