.siblings() method allows us to search through the siblings of the elements on which jquery logic is performed. Use this editor:- http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/tryit.asp?filename=tryjquery_siblings And run this code:- <!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>siblings demo</title> <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script> </head> <body> <ul> <li>list item 1</li> <li>list item 2</li> <li class="third-item">list item 3</li> <li>list item 4</li> <li>list item 5</li> </ul> <script> $( "li.third-item" ).siblings().css( "background-color", "red" ); </script> </body> </html> list item 1,list item 2,list item4,list item 5 will highlight. These are none other than siblings of list item3. In the same way you can change the above written jquery to:- "$( "li" ).siblings('.third-item').css( "background-color", "red" );" Theis will highlight the list item 3 because it is now searching the sibling of li whose class is '.third-tem'.