Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
markup language
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Quizzes
computer chip. computer. Hand holding computer chip. Central processing unit (CPU). history and society, science and technology, microchip, microprocessor motherboard computer Circuit Board
Computers and Technology Quiz
Quick Facts
Related Topics:
HTML
SGML
XML
anchor
DTD
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

markup language

text-encoding system
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

markup language, standard text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. The most widely used markup languages are SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), and XML (Extensible Markup Language). The markup symbols can be interpreted by a device (computer, printer, browser, etc.) to control how a document should look when printed or displayed on a monitor. A marked-up document thus contains two types of text: text to be displayed and markup language on how to display it.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.