Attribute for <DL ...>
COMPACT

Usage Recommendation
use it, but watch for overformatting

COMPACT tells the browser to try to take up less space rendering the definition list. This is usually done by not putting a carriage return after very short terms.

<DL COMPACT>
<DT>Internet Engineering Task Force
     <DD>An organization which establishes technical standards for the Internet
<DT>e
     <DD>Often used as a prefix to indicate the electronic version of something
<DT>spam
     <DD>annoying email and news postings which waste time and bandwidth
</DL>

produces

Internet Engineering Task Force

An organization which establishes technical standards for the Internet

e

Often used as a prefix to indicate the electronic version of something

spam

annoying email and news postings which waste time and bandwidth

The term e and its definition are probably on the same line. However, Internet Engineering Task Force is probably rendered exactly the same way as it is without COMPACT. In practice, COMPACT doesn't usually save much space, and it makes the definition list harder to read.