what is meta in html

The <meta> element is used in HTML to represent metadata that cannot be represented by other HTML meta-related elements, like <base>, <link>, <script>, <style> or <title> . The <meta> element is part of a web pages head section and can be used to specify page description, keywords, and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes. The <meta> element has two uses: either to emulate the use of an HTTP response header field, or to embed additional metadata within the HTML document. The type of metadata provided by the <meta> element can be one of the following:

• If the name attribute is set, the <meta> element provides metadata embedded within the HTML document.
• If the http-equiv attribute is set, the <meta> element is a pragma directive, providing information equivalent to what can be given by a similarly-named HTTP header.
• If the charset attribute is set, the <meta> element is a charset declaration.

The value of the statement, in either case, is contained in the content attribute, which is the only required attribute unless charset is given. The <meta> element can have multiple attributes, including name, http-equiv, content, charset, and scheme .