HTML Tags and Their Meanings
This document provides a table of the most important HTML tags, their meanings, and
example usage.
Tag Purpose Example Code
<!DOCTYPE html> Defines the document type <!DOCTYPE html>
(HTML5)
<html> Root element of an HTML <html> ... </html>
page
<head> Container for meta info, <head> ... </head>
title, CSS, etc.
<title> Title shown in browser tab <title>My Website</title>
<body> Main content of the page <body> ... </body>
<h1> to <h6> Headings from most <h1>Welcome</h1>
important (h1) to least
<p> Paragraph <p>This is a
paragraph.</p>
<br> Line break (no closing tag) Line 1<br>Line 2
<hr> Horizontal line (divider) <hr>
<a> Link to another page or site <a
href="https://example.com
">Click here</a>
<img> Insert an image <img src="image.jpg"
alt="description">
<ul> Unordered list (bullets) <ul><li>Item
1</li><li>Item 2</li></ul>
<ol> Ordered list (numbers) <ol><li>First</
li><li>Second</li></ol>
<li> List item <li>List item</li>
<div> Division/block container <div
class="box">Content</div>
<span> Inline container <span
style="color:red;">Red
Text</span>
<strong> Bold important text <strong>Important</
strong>
<em> Emphasize (italic) <em>Emphasized</em>
<table> Table container <table> ... </table>
<tr> Table row <tr> ... </tr>
<td> Table cell (data) <td>Data</td>
<th> Table header cell <th>Header</th>
<form> Form container <form> ... </form>
<input> Input field <input type="text"
name="name">
<button> Clickable button <button>Click Me</button>
<label> Label for input fields <label
for="name">Name:</label>
<meta> Metadata (inside <head>) <meta charset="UTF-8">
<link> Link to external files like <link rel="stylesheet"
CSS href="style.css">
<script> Embeds JavaScript <script
src="script.js"></script>
<style> Internal CSS styling <style>body {color:
blue;}</style>
<iframe> Embed another webpage <iframe
src="https://example.com"
></iframe>
<nav> Navigation bar/section <nav><a
href="home.html">Home</
a></nav>
<header> Page or section header <header><h1>Site
Title</h1></header>
<footer> Page or section footer <footer>© 2025 My
Site</footer>
<section> Section of content <section><h2>About</
h2></section>
<article> Self-contained content (blog <article><h2>Post
post, etc.) Title</h2><p>Content...</p
></article>
<aside> Sidebar or related content <aside>Sidebar
Info</aside>