HTML Elements Reference — 30 Common Tags

This page lists 30 common HTML elements that beginners typically learn first. Each element name appears as a term (DT) and a short description (DD) so you can use this as a quick reference while building pages.

>
<html>
Root element that contains the entire HTML document.
<head>
Container for metadata: title, meta tags, links to styles and scripts.
<title>
Sets the page title shown in the browser tab.
<meta>
Provides metadata such as charset and viewport for the page.
<link>
Links to external resources like CSS stylesheets.
<style>
Holds internal CSS styles for the page.
<script>
Embeds or references JavaScript code.
<body>
Contains the visible content of the webpage.
<header>
Introductory content or navigation area at the top of a page or section.
<nav>
Represents a block of navigation links.
<main>
The main content area that is unique for the page.
<section>
Logical grouping of content, often with its own heading.
<article>
Self-contained content that could be distributed independently (like a blog post).
<aside>
Sidebar or tangential content related to the main content.
<footer>
Footer area for copyright, links, or small print.
<h1>–<h6>
Heading elements; <h1> is the top-level heading and <h6> the smallest.
<p>
Paragraph block of text.
<a>
Anchor element used for hyperlinks to pages or anchors.
<img>
Embeds an image; uses the src attribute for the image URL.
<ul>
Unordered (bulleted) list container.
<ol>
Ordered (numbered) list container.
<li>
List item within an ordered or unordered list.
<dl>
Definition list container used with <dt> and <dd>.
<dt>
Term/name in a definition list.
<dd>
Definition or description associated with a <dt>.
<table>
Container for tabular data.
<tr>
A row in a table.
<td>
A standard cell in a table row.
<form>
Collects user input and sends it to a server or script.
<input>
Form control for text, checkboxes, radios, etc.; often paired with labels.