What is the function of the @import rule in CSS?

The @import rule in CSS serves the specific purpose of allowing one stylesheet to import another, facilitating the organization and modularization of CSS code. By using @import, you can easily include styles from external stylesheets directly into another stylesheet, which improves maintainability and promotes the reuse of CSS rules across multiple files.

This is especially useful in larger projects where separating styles into different files can help manage complexity. For example, you might have a main.css file where you import reset.css and layout.css to ensure that the styles from those files are available in your main stylesheet.

The other options do not accurately describe the functionality of the @import rule. For instance, defining media queries or applying styles to specific classes are specific functionalities that do not involve importing stylesheets. Creating animations is also a distinct aspect of CSS that does not relate to the @import functionality.