HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and it's the code used to build almost every website you visit. When you look at a webpage with headings, paragraphs, images, and links, HTML is the invisible structure telling your browser how to display everything.

Think of HTML like the blueprint and framing of a house. Just as a blueprint shows where walls, doors, and windows go, HTML tells the browser where to put text, pictures, buttons, and links. People use HTML tags (special commands in angle brackets like `

` or ``) to label different parts of their content. A `

` tag marks a paragraph, an `` tag creates a clickable link, and an `` tag displays an image.

HTML was invented in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist who wanted researchers to share documents easily over the internet. His invention became the foundation of the World Wide Web. While HTML handles structure, other languages like CSS make pages colorful and styled, and JavaScript makes them interactive.

You can actually see the HTML behind any webpage: in most browsers, right-clicking and selecting “View Page Source” reveals the code. Learning HTML is often the first step for people interested in building websites or understanding how the internet works.