HTML Tags Meaning and Examples

 


What are HTML Tags?

HTML tags are simple instructions that tells a web browser how to format text. You can use tags to format italics, line breaks, objects, bullet points, and more. They are basically used to structure an HTML page and add different types of content. While some tags have a very specific purpose, such as image and video tags, most tags are used to describe the content that they surround, which helps us modify and style our content.

There are seemingly infinite numbers of tags to use. Understanding each HTML tag and knowing when to use each one is a crucial step to implementing your own HTML code.

An HTML tag must contain three parts:

-An opening tag — this will start with a < > symbol

-Content — the short instructions on how to display the on-page element

-A closing tag — this will end with a </ > symbol

However, some HTML tags can be unclosed. That means that the HTML tag does not need to be closed with a </ > e.g <img/>, <br>, <input> etc. tags.

There are more than 100 different types of HTML tags that you can use for your web pages. Listed below are some basic HTML tags:


Basic HTML Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<html>Describes an HTML document.
<head>Represents head section of the HTML document.
<title>Describes the title of HTML document.
<body>Describes content of the document.
<!--...-->This tag is used to insert comment inside document code.

HTML Heading Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<h1>

This is the highest heading 1

<h2>

Second level heading 2

<h3>

Third level heading 3

<h4>

Fourth level heading 4

<h5>
Fifth level heading 5
<h6>
This is the least heading 6

HTML Paragraph Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<p>Paragraph

HTML Link Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<base>Describes the base URL to all other relative URLs.
<a>Specifies a hyperlink.

HTML Scripting Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<script>Describes client- side script that is JavaScript.
<noscript>When scripts are disabled <noscript> tag provides alternative details to the users.

HTML Table Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<table>To define a Table in HTML.
<caption>To define a Table caption in HTML. It is like a name of the table
<thth is like "Table Head" to specify the header cell in the table. It is used to provide the Column name of a table.
<tr>tr is like "Table Row" to specify the row in a table. It is used for each row of a table.
<td>td is like "Table Data" to specify a cell in a table.
<thead>thead is like "Table Head" used to change the properties like the color of the Header content in HTML table. We can change the properties of the heading.
<tbody>tbody is like "Table Body" used to change the properties like the color of the content in the body in HTML table. We can change the properties of the body.
<tfoot>tfoot is like "Table footer" used to change the properties like the color of the footer content in HTML table. We can change the properties of a footer.
<col>Defines the properties of each column within colgroup.
<colgroup>It is used to specify a group of one or more columns in a table for formatting.

HTML Form Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<form>Form is used in all the websites to collect information about user who visits your website.
<input>It is an input field where user can give there details in the given form.
<textarea>Represent a multi-line plain-text editing control.
<button>Creates various clickable buttons like submit, reset, cancel, ok and many more.
<select>Describes a drop-down list.
<optgroup>Display group of options related lists in the form of drop down list.
<option>Displays option in drop down list.
<label>Describes text label with a form input field.
<fieldset>To form related data in group <fieldset> element is used.
<legend>Represent caption of <fieldset> element.
<datalist>The pre-defined option is specified in drop down list.
<output>Declares results of calculation.

HTML Image Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<img>Represents an image.
<map>Represent map within <img> tag. And the image map contains clickable areas.
<area>It is used to define area inside an image-map, where it contains clickable region on an image map.
<canvas>This tag in HTML5 is used to draw graphics on web page using JavaScript.
<figcaption>This tag gives Caption to figure element. This can be placed as first or last child of <figure> element.
<figure>It defines media content with captions. Content of <figure> element belongs to main flow.
<svg>It is a language used to describe 2D graphics and graphical applications in XML.

HTML Meta Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<head>Represents head section of the HTML document which contains the meta information about the HTML Page
<meta>Describes the metadata of HTML page where it contains page description, author of the page, keywords.
<base>Describes the base URL to all other relative URLs.
<basefont>This tag is used to specify font size, color and font family for the document. (Deprecated)

HTML Object Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<object>It is used to embed multimedia in HTML documents like video, audio, Java applets, ActiveX, PDF, and Flash.

HTML List Tags

Keyword Parameters are those parameters which does not follow a fixed position and can appear in any position or order. You can change the position of the keyword parameters as you wish.

TAGDESCRIPTION
<ul>Tag is used for unordered list. The list will have items as bulleted items
<ol>Represents an ordered list in either Numeric or alphabetical order
<li>It represents an item or items in a list. We can list the term and term description below this
<dl>Used for description list.
<dt>For Term in the description list.
<dd>This tag represents Term description in the description list.
<menu>Represents the list of commands which is used to build menus.
<menuitem>Represents the command that the user can invoke from a popup menu.

HTML Text Tags

TAGDESCRIPTION
<abbr>Specifies abbreviations.
<address>We can provide contact details of page author using address element.
<b>It is used to bold text.
<bdi>BDI means Bi-Directional Isolation. It formats the text in different direction.
<bdo>Describes bi-directional override of the text.
<blockquote>The HTML blockquote element is used to format a block of text as a long quote which is indented more than the surrounding text.
<cite>It specifies the work title.
<code>Specifies text in computer code.
<del>It defines deleted text in HTML document.
<dfn>This tag is used for definition term in HTML.
<em>Formats text in document to emphasized text.
<i>Formats text in document to italic text.
<ins>ins describes inserted text in HTML document.
<kbd>Denotes the text given by user that is keyboard input.
<mark>marks the text.
<meter>Within the predefined range <meter> tag specifies scalar measurement known as gauge.
<pre>Describes preformatted text in HTML page. It is used to maintain the existing spaces or line breaks.
<progress>Progress of any task is defined by progress bar.
<q>Declares short quotations.
<rp>This tag is used to help browsers which is not supported by ruby annotation.
<rtSpecifies Character pronunciation of ruby annotations.
<ruby>Specifies a ruby annotation which is used to show many East Asian languages.
<s>Specifies that given text is incorrect and it strike through text.
<samp>Describes sample output from computer program.
<small>Describe smaller text.
<strong>Used for describing important text.
<sub>We can give subscript to text.
<sup>used for giving superscripted to text.
<template>For a template.
<time>Specifies date and time in HTML document.
<tt>Describe teletype text.
<var>Specifies name of variable in mathematical expression or programming context.
<wbr>Specifies position within text where browser may optionally break a line.

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