HTML is a markup language used to define the structure and layout of web pages. It uses tags to mark elements like headings, paragraphs, lists, links etc. Basic HTML tags include <h1> for main headings, <p> for paragraphs, <ul> for unordered lists, <ol> for ordered lists, and <a> for links. Links are defined using the <a> tag along with an href attribute specifying the URL. HTML also supports basic text formatting tags like <b> for bold, <i> for italic, and <br> for line breaks. Comments can be added in HTML using <!-- and --> tags.