HTML <span> inline span Tag Reference
The span HTML tag means inline span, and is used to apply style to a section of text without breaking the flow of the document.
Use it when you want to apply some styles to a portion of content without affecting the layout in any way.
The <span> HTML/xHTML tag
The <span> inline span tag defines content as 'inline', which means it will go with the flow of the document, as opposed to the <div> tag, which breaks the flow of the document.
It doesn't actually do anything to the content itself, but is used as a 'style hook', allowing you to apply different styles to sections of text within a document.
It's valid in all current versions of HTML and xHTML, and it should always have a closing </span> tag.
When to use the <span> tag (semantic use)
The <span> tag should be used to style sections of text for which there is no appropriate existing HTML tag. For example, you might want to have any prices in a paragraph of text coloured red. There is no <price> tag, so you can simply use the <span> tag with a classname and then use CSS to change the font colour (see example)
Example of <span> tag use
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