Difference between semantic and non-semantic elements

Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2025

Semantic HTML elements

These semantic elements simply mean, elements with meaning. The reason being, there definition in the code tells the browser and the developer what they are supposed to do. Framing in simpler words, these elements describe the type of content they are supposed to contain.

Following is the list of some semantic elements:

article
aside
details
figcaption
figure
footer
form
header
main
mark
nav
table
section

Example: This example shows the use of semantic elements.

html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>my web page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        h1 {
            color: green;
            font-weight: bold;
        }

        table,
        tr,
        td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }

        th {
            font-weight: bold;
            color: red;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>
    <article>
        <h1>GeeksforGeeks</h1>
        <p>A Computer Science Portal for Geeks</p>
    </article>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>head1</th>
            <th>head2</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>A</td>
            <td>0</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>B</td>
            <td>1</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>

</html>

Output:

Non-Semantic elements

Unlike, semantic elements they don't have any meaning. They don't tell anything about the content they contain. They can be used with different attributes to mark up semantics common to a group.

Following is the list of some non-semantic elements:

div
span

Example: This example shows the use of non-semantic elements.

html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>my web page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        span {
            color: green;
            font-size: 40px;
            font-weight: bold;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>
    <div>
        <span>GeeksForGeeks</span> <br>
        A computer science portal for geeks
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Output: