--- title: "What is HTML?" description: "HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is a language for describing web pages. HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language (" author: "Amit Singh" published: 2011-10-09 updated: 2014-09-18 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/249/what-is-html category: "html" tags: ["html"] reading_time: 1 minute --- # What is HTML? HTML stands for Hyper Text [Markup Language](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/234/what-is-markup-language). HTML is a language for describing [web pages](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/367/transferring-data-between-asp-dot-net-web-pages). HTML is not a [programming language](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/329035/5-most-in-demand-programming-languages-to-consider-for-your-app-development-in-2022), it is a markup language (A markup language is a set of markup tags). Markup tags describe how text should be displayed.\ ##### Important characteristics of HTML 1. HTML markup tags are usually called HTML tags. 2. HTML tags are [keywords](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12899/how-to-spot-if-you-re-optimizing-for-the-wrong-keywords) surrounded by angle brackets like 3. HTML tags normally come in pairs like and 4. The first tag in a pair is the start tag (opening tag), the second tag is the end tag (closing tag). 5. An HTML file is a [text file](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/2174/how-do-i-locate-a-particular-word-in-a-text-file) with HTML tags and [file name](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/34109/how-do-you-generate-a-unique-file-name-to-avoid-overwriting-an-existing-one) must end with .htm or .html. This file can be created using a simple text editor so it is also called n HTML [document](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/328642/what-to-consider-while-choosing-a-software-documentation-tool) or a [web page](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/718/sql-server-report-alignment-to-center-of-web-page) This is the **basic notation** of HTML document ```

What is HTML?