Jens Oliver Meiert

Use my latest work: latest tech book 路 latest non-tech book 路 latest tool 路 latest major tool update

HTML Concepts: Kinds of Elements

Published on May聽31, 2023, filed under , . (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on聽Bluesky.)

There are six (not two, five, or eight) different kinds of elements in HTML:

  1. Void elements: area, base, br, col, embed, hr, img, input, link, meta, source, track, and wbr
  2. Raw text elements: script and style
  3. Escapable raw text elements: textarea and title
  4. The template element: template
  5. Foreign elements: elements from the MathML and SVG namespaces
  6. Normal elements: all other allowed HTML elements

This classification is useful because these elements differ in key aspects. Void elements have no contents (they have no end tag, even if we wanted one). The template element contains template contents. MathML and SVG relate to different specifications (and may therefore not even be counted as HTML elements).

As always (consider the Web Developer鈥檚 Pilgrimage), the HTML specification has the details: 搂聽13.1.2 Elements. And this is part of a series: more HTML concepts.

About Me

Jens Oliver Meiert, on March 2, 2026.

I鈥檓 Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I鈥檓 an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I鈥檝e worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you鈥檝e never heard of, I鈥檓 an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O鈥橰eilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)