What Does HTML Actually Mean?

HTML = HyperText Markup Language

Let’s break it into pieces.

1. What is HyperText?

HyperText = Text that contains links.

That’s it.

Not normal text.
Not plain text.
Text that can jump from one place to another.

Real-world example:

Think of a WhatsApp chat.
When someone shares a link like:

https://instagram.com

You click it → it takes you somewhere else.

That is hypertext — text + linking ability.

Web example:

<a href="https://google.com">Search here</a>

Click → jumps to another page.
This jumping ability = hyper (beyond) + text.

So hypertext = text with superpowers (links).

What is Markup?

Markup = Tags used to mark or label content.

You “mark” content to tell the browser what it is.

For example:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>

Here, the tags <p> and </p> mark the text as a paragraph.

Examples of markup:

<h1>Main Title</h1>     → marked as a heading
<strong>Important</strong> → marked as bold
<ul>...</ul>             → marked as a list

You aren’t styling, you aren’t designing —
you are just labeling the content.

So, HTML means:

HyperText = linking ability

Markup = label content with tags

Together:

HTML is a language that labels your content and allows links between pages.