What is HTML?
- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
- HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
- HTML describes the structure of a Web page
- HTML consists of a series of elements
- HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
- HTML elements label pieces of content such as “this is a heading”, “this is a paragraph”, “this is a link”, etc.
A Simple HTML Document
Example
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
Example Explained
- The
declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document - The
element is the root element of an HTML page - The
element contains meta information about the HTML page - The
element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab) - The
element defines the document’s body, and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc. - The
element defines a large heading - The
element defines a paragraph - What is an HTML Element?
- An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:
Content goes here… - The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
| Start tag | Element content | End tag |
|---|---|---|
| My First Heading | ||
| My first paragraph. | ||
| none | none |
Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the
element). These elements are called empty ele
Web Browsers
The purpose of a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) is to read HTML documents and display them correctly.
A browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to determine how to display the document:

