What does the class selector .fancy indicate in CSS?

The class selector .fancy in CSS is used to apply styling to all elements that have the class attribute set to 'fancy'. This means any HTML element that includes class="fancy" will inherit the styles defined in the corresponding CSS rule.

Using a class selector allows for reusable styles, meaning you can apply the same styling to multiple elements without needing to define separate styles for each one. This promotes consistency in appearance and efficiency in coding, since you can manage styles in one central place.

In contrast, a unique identifier for a single element refers to the ID selector, which is denoted by a hash (#) symbol and applies styles to only one specific element on the page. An inline style directive pertains to directly embedding CSS styles within an HTML element's style attribute, which is distinct from class selectors. Lastly, a global style for all elements is usually associated with the universal selector (*), which does not target a specific class but rather applies to every element on the page.