HTML Tags List: HTML Cheat Sheet

By Chris Barnhart Last updated Aug 20, 2021

Understanding each HTML tag is a crucial step to implementing your own HTML code.

Use this guide as a reference for standard HTML tags and how to use them.

HTML tags are simple instructions that tell a web browser how to format text. You can use tags to format italics, line breaks, objects, bullet points, and more.

These tags live in the HTML (or the Hypertext Markup Language) of every webpage. Put, HTML is the language of web pages.

How Do Web Pages Read HTML Tags?

Servers read HTML code to understand and render content. It will read the HTML from top to bottom, much like how you’re reading this guide.

You can use as many or as few tags as you like to format content. However, there are a few essential HTML tags and rules you’ll need to follow.

An HTML tag must contain three parts:

An opening tag — this will start with a < > symbol
Content — the short instructions on how to display the on-page element
A closing tag — this will end with a </ > symbol

However, some HTML tags can be unclosed. That means that the HTML tag does not need to be closed with a </ >. You’ll typically use unclosed tags for metadata or line breaks.

What’s the Difference Between Attributes and HTML Tags?

Although this guide is all about HTML tags, it’s important to know the difference between HTML tags, elements, and attributes.

An HTML element is an item on the page; it’s part of the web page’s content. An HTML tag affects how an HTML element appears. An HTML attribute describes the characteristics of that element.

Here’s a breakdown of how elements, tags, and attributes work together:

HTML tags contain instructions on how to display an on-page element. They begin with a < and end with a > and precede and follow the content of the element. (e.g <b> Bold Tag </b>)
HTML Elements are the on-page content sandwiched within the tags. (<b> Bold Tag </b>)
HTML Attributes provide additional information about HTML elements and appear at within the HTML tag (e.g. <html lang=”en-US”>).

Type	HTML Tags	HTML Elements	HTML Attributes
Contains	Instructions on how to display an on-page element	The on-page content to be displayed	Additional information about the on-page elements
Appearance	It starts with < and ends with >	Sandwiched within an HTML tag	Appear in the starting tag before any elements

Examples Of HTML Tags

<p> Paragraph Tag </p>

The <p> and </p> are the HTML tags and “Paragraph Tag” is the HTML element, i.e. the on-page text.

This tag formats any text between the opening <p> tag and the closing </p> tag as a standard paragraph or main body text.

<h2> Heading Tag </h2>

In this example, <h2> and </h2> are the HTML tags and “Heading Tag” is the HTML element, i.e. the on-page heading.

Using this tag will format any text between the opening <h2> tag and the closing </h2> tag as a Heading 2 (a type of subheading.)

<b> Bold Tag </b>

Here the <b> and </b> are the HTML tags and “Bold Tag” is the HTML element, i.e. the on page text.

This tag will format any text between the opening <b> tag and the closing </b> tag as bold.

<i> Italic Tag </i>

Here, the <i> and </i> are the HTML tags and “Italic Tag” is the HTML element (the on-page text.)

This tag will format any text between the opening <i> tag and the closing </i> tag as italic.

<u> Underline Tag</u>

Here the <u> and </u> are the HTML tags and “Underline Tag” is the HTML element, i.e. the on page text.

This tag will format any text between the opening <u> tag and the closing </u> tag as underlined.

There are nearly 100 different types of HTML tags that you can use for your web pages. Here is a list of the most common HTML tags:

Tag	Type	What It Is
<p>	HTML Text Tags	Paragraph
<h1>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 1
<h2>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 2
<h3>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 3
<h4>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 4
<h5>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 5
<h6>	HTML Text Tags	Heading 6
<strong>	HTML Text Tags	Strong
<em>	HTML Text Tags	Emphasis
<abbr>	HTML Text Tags	Abbreviation
<address>	HTML Text Tags	Contact Information
<bdo>	HTML Text Tags	Override The Current Text Direction
<blockquote>	HTML Text Tags	Content From Another Source
<cite>	HTML Text Tags	Title Of The Work, Book, Website
<q>	HTML Text Tags	Inline Quotation
<code>	HTML Text Tags	Display A Part Of Programming Code
<ins>	HTML Text Tags	Text Inserted
<del>	HTML Text Tags	Text Deleted From The Document
<dfn>	HTML Text Tags	Term Defined Within A Sentence/Phrase
<kbd>	HTML Text Tags	Keyboard Input
<pre>	HTML Text Tags	Preformatted Text
<samp>	HTML Text Tags	Sample Output Of A Computer Program
<var>	HTML Text Tags	Variable Name Used In Mathematical Or Programming Context
<br>	HTML Text Tags	Single Line Break
<div>	HTML Text Tags	Division
<a>	HTML Link Tags	Anchor Tag For A Link
<base>	HTML Link Tags	Base Url For All Relative Url Within The Document
<img>	HTML Image And Object Tags	Image
<area>	HTML Image And Object Tags	Area Of An Image Map
<map>	HTML Image And Object Tags	Image Map
<param>	HTML Image And Object Tags	Parameter For An <Object> Element
<object>	HTML Image And Object Tags	Embed An Object
<ul>	HTML List Tags	Unordered List
<ol>	HTML List Tags	Ordered List
<li>	HTML List Tags	List
<dl>	HTML List Tags	Description List
<dt>	HTML List Tags	Term In Description List
<dd>	HTML List Tags	Definition/Description Of A Term In Description List

For a full list of all 100+ HTML elements, visit this helpful guide from javaTpoint.

If you already have HTML tags on your web pages and want to check if they’re used correctly, you can do so by looking at the HTML of your page. To do this, all you need is your web browser.

To view your webpage’s HTML, you should: