Hypertext is text on a computer that connects to other text through clickable links. When you click on a blue, underlined word or phrase on a website, you jump to a different page or section. That's hypertext in action.

Before hypertext, reading meant going from page one to page two to page three in order, like reading a regular book. Hypertext lets you jump around instantly, following your curiosity wherever it leads. You might start reading about ancient Egypt, click a link about pyramids, then jump to an article about architecture, then hop to one about the Eiffel Tower. Each click takes you somewhere new.

The inventor Ted Nelson coined the term in 1963, imagining a world where all information could connect together. His vision became reality with the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Now hypertext is so common that we barely notice it, but it revolutionized how we find and explore information.