What is HTML?

What is HTML?

Welcome to your HTML journey! In this tutorial, you’ll learn what HTML is and why it’s essential for building websites.

What you’ll learn:

• What HTML stands for and what it does
• How HTML relates to other web technologies
• Basic HTML concepts and terminology

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HTML Explained

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.

Let’s break that down:

• HyperText — Text that links to other text. When you click a link to go to another page, that’s hypertext in action!
• Markup — Special symbols (called “tags”) that tell browsers how to display content
• Language — A set of rules that browsers understand

Tip

HTML is not a programming language—you don’t write calculations or logic with it. It’s a markup language that describes the structure of content.

What Does HTML Do?

HTML tells web browsers what content is on a page and how it’s structured.

For example, HTML can say:

• “This is a heading”
• “This is a paragraph”
• “This is a link to another page”
• “This is an image”

HTML

<h1>Hello, World!</h1> <p>This is a paragraph of text.</p> <a href="https://example.com">This is a link</a>

Result ▶ Run

Try editing the code above! Change the text inside the tags and see what happens.

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Websites are built with three technologies that work together:

Technology	What It Does	Analogy
HTML	Structure and content	The skeleton and organs
CSS	Appearance and layout	The skin and clothes
JavaScript	Behavior and interactivity	The muscles and brain

Right now, we’re focusing on HTML—the foundation that everything else builds upon.

Note

You can build a website with just HTML. CSS and JavaScript are optional (though most websites use them).

Key Concepts

Elements

An element is a piece of content with a specific meaning. For example:

<p>This is a paragraph element.</p>

Tags

Tags are the markers that define elements. Most elements have:

• An opening tag: <p>
• Content: The text or other elements inside
• A closing tag: </p>

<p>Content goes here</p>

Attributes

Attributes provide extra information about elements:

<a href="https://example.com">Link text</a>

Here, href is an attribute that tells the link where to go.

Try It Yourself

Edit this code to create your own content:

HTML

<h1>My First Webpage</h1> <p>Hello! My name is ___.</p> <p>I am learning HTML because ___.</p>

Result ▶ Run

Experiment! Try:

1. Changing the heading text
2. Adding your name
3. Writing why you want to learn HTML

Summary

• HTML describes the structure of web content
• It uses elements defined by tags
• Attributes provide extra information
• HTML works with CSS (styling) and JavaScript (interactivity)

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Next Steps

Next: Your First Page

Create a complete HTML document from scratch. Continue →

Element Reference

Explore all HTML elements in our reference. Browse A-Z →