HTML is the standard markup language for creating web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images and other objects, such as interactive forms, may be embedded into the rendered page. It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items. HTML elements are delineated by tags, written using angle brackets.

HTML tags most commonly come in pairs like

and

, although some represent empty elements and so are unpaired, for example . The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag (they are also called opening tags and closing tags). In between these tags web designers can add text, further tags on nested elements or other objects. Browsers do not display the HTML tags themselves but use them to interpret the content of the page.

Notes:
-An opening tag consists of a less-than sign (<) followed by an element's name. -A closing tag consists of a less-than sign (<) followed by a forward slash (/), immediately followed by the element's name. -Element names are case insensitive; that is, you can use any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. -Most browsers will display an element in one line unless you tell it to do otherwise; specifically, unless you use one or more line break (
) or paragraph (

) tags within that element