The <div> element usually has no specific semantic meaning by itself, simply representing a division, and is typically used for grouping and encapsulating other elements within an HTML document and separating those from other groups of content. As such, each <div> is best described by its contents.

<div>
  <p>Hello! This is a paragraph.</p>
</div>

The div element is typically a block-level element (opens new window), meaning that it separates a block of an HTML document and occupying the maximum width of the page. Browsers typically have the following default CSS rule:

div {
  display: block;
}

It's strongly encouraged by the **The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)** to view the div element as an element of last resort, for when no other element is suitable. The use of more appropriate elements instead of the div element leads to better accessibility for readers and easier maintainability for authors.

For example, a blog post would be marked up using <article>, a chapter using <section>, a page's navigation aids using <nav>, and a group of form controls using <fieldset>.

div elements can be useful for stylistic purposes or to wrap multiple paragraphs within a section that are all to be annotated in a similar way.