HTML is the standard markup language used to create web pages. It uses tags to structure and layout content like headings, paragraphs, lists, and more. Tags are placed within angle brackets and usually come in matching pairs of opening and closing tags. The base HTML page structure includes a head and body section, with the head containing meta information not displayed on the page and the body containing all visible content. Common tags include headings, paragraphs, lists, emphasis, and breaks.