markup language

noun

: a system (such as HTML or SGML) for marking or tagging a document that indicates its logical structure (such as paragraphs) and gives instructions for its layout on the page especially for electronic transmission and display

Examples of markup language in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
In 1992: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and HTML markup language, uploaded a photo of an all-women parody band called Les Horrible Cernettes (a wordplay on Cern’s Large Hadron Collider), making the image the first to be shared on the World Wide Web. Lorenzino Estrada, The Arizona Republic, 18 July 2024 Aurich Lawson | Getty Images The best time to truly implement the Markdown markup language into Google Docs was in the early 2010s, but yesterday was a pretty good time, too. Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 17 July 2024 At the top of the stack—the surface most of us encounter first—are simple markup languages, HTML being the best known. Scott Gilbertson, WIRED, 8 Apr. 2024 The eventual vision is that AI would be used to assist both parties in negotiating, interpret markup language from counterparties, and rapidly create consensus among all parties to a contract. Tom Davenport, Forbes, 17 May 2022 Then there’s extensible access control markup language (XACML), which is an authorization standard that addresses fine-grain access at run time, not managing policies across multicloud environments. Gerry Gebel, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2022 For authentication, mechanisms like security assertion markup language (SAML) enables users to log on once to multiple services via single sign on. Jyoti Bansal, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2021 Later, provisioning standards developed, such as service provisioning markup language (SPML), which allows different organizations to stand up services. Eric Olden, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of markup language was in 1980

Dictionary Entries Near markup language

Cite this Entry

“Markup language.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/markup%20language. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

markup language

noun
: a system (as HTML) for marking or tagging a document that indicates its logical structure (as paragraphs) and gives instructions for its layout on the page especially for electronic transmission and display
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!