The p:nth-child(3n+2) selects each 3rd paragraph, starting at the last 2nd child element.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.4.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script> $(document).ready(function(){ $("p:nth-last-child(3n+2)").css("background-color", "yellow"); });/*from w w w . java2 s .c o m*/ </script> </head> <body> <div style="border:1px solid;"> <p>The first paragraph.</p> <p>The second paragraph.</p> <p>The third paragraph.</p> <p>The fourth paragraph.</p> <p>The fifth paragraph.</p> <p>The sixth paragraph.</p> <p>The seventh paragraph.</p> <p>The eight paragraph.</p> <span>This is a span element.</span> </div><br> </body> </html>