9/19/25, 4:39 PM HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN
Web HTML English (US)
HTML: HyperText Markup Language
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It defines the meaning and structure
of web content. Other technologies besides HTML are generally used to describe a web page's appearance/presentation
(CSS) or functionality/behavior (JavaScript).
"Hypertext" refers to links that connect web pages to one another, either within a single website or between websites.
Links are a fundamental aspect of the Web. By uploading content to the Internet and linking it to pages created by other
people, you become an active participant in the World Wide Web.
HTML uses "markup" to annotate text, images, and other content for display in a Web browser. HTML markup includes
special "elements" such as <head> , <title> , <body> , <header> , <footer> , <article> , <section> , <p> , <div> ,
<span> , <img> , <aside> , <audio> , <canvas> , <datalist> , <details> , <embed> , <nav> , <search> , <output> ,
<progress> , <video> , <ul> , <ol> , <li> and many others.
An HTML element is set off from other text in a document by "tags", which consist of the element name surrounded by
< and > . The name of an element inside a tag is case-insensitive. That is, it can be written in uppercase, lowercase, or
a mixture. For example, the <title> tag can be written as <Title> , <TITLE> , or in any other way. However, the
convention and recommended practice is to write tags in lowercase.
The articles below can help you learn more about HTML.
Beginner's tutorials
Your first website: Creating the content
This article provides a brief tour of what HTML is and how to use it, aimed at people who are completely new to web
development.
Structuring content with HTML
Our Learn web development section's HTML module teaches all the HTML fundamentals from the ground up.
Guides
The HTML guides help you build with HTML on the web, covering topics such as forms, CORS, content preloading, and
responsive images.
HTML forms
Forms are a very important part of the Web — these provide much of the functionality you need for interacting with
websites, e.g., registering and logging in, sending feedback, buying products, and more. This module gets you started
with creating the client-side/front-end parts of forms.
CORS enabled image
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The crossorigin attribute, in combination with an appropriate CORS header, allows images defined by the <img>
element to be loaded from foreign origins and used in a <canvas> element as if they were being loaded from the
current origin.
CORS settings attributes
Some HTML elements that provide support for CORS, such as <img> or <video> , have a crossorigin attribute
( crossOrigin property), which lets you configure the CORS requests for the element's fetched data.
Preloading content with rel="preload"
The preload value of the <link> element's rel attribute allows you to write declarative fetch requests in your
HTML <head> , specifying resources that your pages will need very soon after loading, which you therefore want to
start preloading early in the lifecycle of a page load, before the browser's main rendering machinery kicks in. This
ensures that they are made available earlier and are less likely to block the page's first render, leading to performance
improvements. This article provides a basic guide to how preload works.
Responsive images
In this article, we'll learn about the concept of responsive images — images that work well on devices with widely
differing screen sizes, resolutions, and other such features — and look at what tools HTML provides to help
implement them. This helps to improve performance across different devices.
Reference
HTML reference
HTML consists of elements, each of which may be modified by some number of attributes. HTML documents are
connected to each other with links.
HTML element reference
Browse a list of all HTML elements.
HTML attribute reference
Elements in HTML have attributes. These are additional values that configure the elements or adjust their behavior in
various ways.
Global attributes
Global attributes may be specified on all HTML elements, even those not specified in the standard. This means that
any non-standard elements must still permit these attributes, even though those elements make the document
HTML5-noncompliant.
Inline-level elements and block-level elements
HTML elements are usually "inline-level" or "block-level" elements. An inline-level element occupies only the space
bounded by the tags that define it. A block-level element occupies the entire space of its parent element (container),
thereby creating a "block box".
HTML comments
HTML comments are used to add explanatory notes to the markup or to prevent the browser from interpreting specific
parts of the document.
Guide to media types and formats on the web
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The <audio> and <video> elements allow you to play audio and video media natively within your content without
the need for external software support.
HTML content categories
HTML is comprised of several kinds of content, each of which is allowed to be used in certain contexts and is
disallowed in others. Similarly, each context has a set of other content categories it can contain and elements that can
or can't be used in them. This is a guide to these categories.
Quirks mode and standards mode
Historical information on quirks mode and standards mode.
Related topics
Applying color to HTML elements using CSS
This article covers most of the ways you use CSS to add color to HTML content, listing what parts of HTML
documents can be colored and what CSS properties to use when doing so.
Your blueprint for a better internet.
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