An HTML element usually consists of a start tag and end tag, with the content inserted in between:
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have an end tag, such as the <br> element (which indicates a line break).
Nested HTML Elements
HTML elements can be nested (elements can contain elements).
All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
This example contains four HTML elements:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <body> <h1>My First Heading</h1> <p>My first paragraph.</p> </body> </html>
Example Explained
The <html> element defines the whole document.
It has a start tag <html> and an end tag </html>.
The element content is another HTML element (the <body> element).
<html> <body> <h1>My First Heading</h1> <p>My first paragraph.</p> </body> </html>
The <body> element defines the document body.
It has a start tag <body> and an end tag </body>.
The element content is two other HTML elements (<h1> and <p>).
<body> <h1>My First Heading</h1> <p>My first paragraph.</p> </body>
The <h1> element defines a heading.
It has a start tag <h1> and an end tag </h1>.
The element content is: My First Heading.