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In computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document
and a way of hierarchically arranging content. More specifically, an
HTML element is an SGML element that meets the requirements of one or
more of the HTML Document Type Definitions (DTDs). These elements
have properties: both attributes and content, as specified (both
allowable and required) according to the appropriate HTML DTD (for
example, the HTML 4.01 strict DTD). Elements may represent headings,
paragraphs, hypertext links, lists, embedded media, and a variety of
other structures.

Syntactically HTML elements are constructed with: 1) a start
tag marking the beginning of an element; 2) any number of attributes
(and their associated values); 3) some amount of content (characters
and other elements)'; and 4) an end tag. Many HTML elements include
attributes in their start tags, defining desired behavior or
indicating additional element properties. The end tag is optional for
many elements; in a minimal case, an empty element has no content and
requires no end tag. There are a few elements that are not part of
any official DTDs, yet are supported by some browsers and used by
some web pages. Such elements may be ignored or displayed improperly
on browsers not supporting them. Informally, HTML elements are
sometimes referred to as "tags" (an example of synecdoche), though
many prefer the term tag strictly in reference to the semantic
structures delimiting the start and end of an element. XHTML is the
successor to HTML 4.01; XHTML 1.0 supports the same elements as HTML
4 and in most cases valid XHTML 1.0 documents will be valid or nearly
valid HTML 4 documents. XHTML 1.0 migrates HTML from its SGML
underpinnings to an XML foundation. Accordingly, the discussion of
elements within this article focuses on the final SGML based HTML,
version 4.01 (unless noted otherwise). However, to the extent that
XHTML 1.0 elements remain identical to the HTML 4.01 elements, the
discussion remains applicable (see HTML for a discussion of the minor
differences in content between XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4.01).
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