HTML is a markup language used to define web pages. It uses tags surrounded by angle brackets to structure and layout content. HTML documents contain elements like headings, paragraphs, and lists that are defined by opening and closing tags. CSS is used to style and lay out HTML elements. CSS rules can be defined internally, in a separate style sheet file, or inline with HTML elements using style attributes. CSS selectors like id and class are used to target specific elements for styling. A CSS rule contains a selector that targets an element and declarations that define properties and values to style that element.