Why are spaces used to separate things in css

Here is something in a wordpress stylesheet that I don't understand:

blockquote cite,
blockquote em,
blockquote i {
font-style: normal;
}

what does the space between blockquote and cite do? I understand if they are separated by a comma, then both blockquote and cite will have "font-style: normal;" now they are separated by space, does this mean if a blockquote tag is embedded into a cite tag it will get "font-style: normal;"?

Thank you.

The space is known as the descendant combinator. blockquote cite selects any cite element within a blockquote element. Likewise for blockquote em and blockquote i.

In other words, it's not "if a blockquote tag is embedded into a cite tag", it's the other way around (besides, you can't place blockquotes in cites in the first place).

As you note, commas group selector sequences into the same rule.

This means target the cite tag inside the blockquote etc.

In this instance, the site is attempting to override all italics set inside a blockquote.