HTML is the standard markup language used to define the structure and layout of web pages. HTML documents consist of HTML elements that are delimited by tags like <p> for paragraphs and <img> for images. The basic structure of an HTML document includes <html>, <head>, and <body> tags. Common elements include headings, paragraphs, links, images, line breaks, and text formatting elements for bold, italics, etc. Elements can have attributes to specify properties like the image source or link destination. HTML also supports tables, lists, and other structured documents.