Chapter 2: HTML Fundamentals and Document Structure Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental HTML tags, document structure, semantic markup, and validation concepts from Chapter 2.

Tag

A marker written in angle brackets, such as

or

, that opens or closes a piece of HTML content.

Element

A tag pair together with everything nested between them; the full structural unit, not just the marker.

Attribute

Extra information placed inside an opening tag, written as a name-value pair, such as lang="en".

Semantic HTML

Markup chosen because it accurately describes what the content is, such as

for navigation, rather than markup chosen only for how it happens to render.

Nesting

Placing one element inside another in a way that reflects a genuine parent-child relationship, with inner tags closed before the outer tags that contain them.

Validation

Checking a document's markup against the published HTML standard using a dedicated tool, rather than relying on how forgivingly a browser happens to render it.

Anatomy of an HTML Document Skeleton

The foundational structure of a valid HTML document, beginning with followed by the root element containing for metadata and for visible content.

A declaration placed at the very start of a web page that tells the browser which version of HTML rules to use.

The root element containing all other elements in the document, whose lang attribute informs assistive technology and search engines of the page's primary language.

The HTML element that contains metadata and information about the page (such as character encoding and tab title) rather than content rendered directly on the page.

The HTML element that encloses all the visible content displayed to a visitor on the web page.

id Attribute

An attribute used to assign a unique identifier name to a specific HTML element for CSS styling or JavaScript manipulation.

class Attribute

An attribute used to assign a group name to one or more elements that should share common styling or scripting behavior.

Heading Elements (

through

)

Tags representing structural ranks in a document outline from highest (

) to lowest (

), defining logical hierarchy rather than text size.

Ordered List vs. Unordered List

An ordered list (

) is used when the sequence of items carries meaning, whereas an unordered list (
) is used for sets of items with no inherent order.

Element

An HTML tag indicating that text carries strong structural importance, causing screen readers to alter vocal emphasis.

Element

An HTML tag that renders text in bold styling without adding any semantic meaning or structural importance.

Element

An HTML tag providing genuine structural emphasis, altering sentence tone for screen readers.

Element

An HTML tag that renders text in italics for visual style without making any claim about semantic emphasis.

Semantic Layout Regions

Dedicated HTML5 elements—

,

,

, and

—used to define the distinct structural sections of a web page.

Whitespace Collapsing

The default browser behavior of converting extra spaces, tabs, and line breaks typed in source HTML into a single space when rendering.

W3C Markup Validator

The standard web tool used to check HTML markup against published specification rules to verify structural validity.