What is an HTML Element?

An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:

<tagname>Content goes here...</tagname>

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

Nested HTML Elements

HTML elements can be nested (this means that elements can contain other elements).

All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.

The following example contains four HTML elements (<html>, <body>, <h1> and <p>)

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Example Explained

The <html> element is the root element and it defines the whole HTML document.

It has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.

Then, inside the <html> element there is a <body> element:

<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>

The <body> element defines the document's body.

It has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.

Then, inside the <body> element there is two other elements: <h1> and <p>:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

The <h1> element defines a heading.

It has a start tag <h1> and an end tag </h1>:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

The <p> element defines a paragraph.

It has a start tag <p> and an end tag </p>:

<p>My first paragraph.</p>

Never Skip the End Tag

Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the end tag:

Example

<html>
<body>

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is a paragraph

</body>
</html>

However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may occur if you forget the end tag!

Empty HTML Elements

HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.

The <br> tag defines a line break, and is an empty element without a closing tag:

Example

<p>This is a <br> paragraph with a line break.</p>

HTML is Not Case Sensitive

HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>.

The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, but roarcoding recommends lowercase in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.

This web follows the latest HTML5 standard.
Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the <br> element). These elements are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have an end tag!