Div <div> is a generic block-level element. It does nothing except create a line before and after itself just like any other block-level element, by default, and has no semantic meaning. Unlike inline elements, there aren't a lot of block-level elements in XHTML that impart semantic meaning the way there is for inline elements, though <span> is still of use for complicated composite styles and JavaScript. Indeed, this is the point of many of the new HTML5 elements. <div> is typically used to to group items for stylistic purposes , such as with Absolute Positioning, and often represents different regions in the page (the new elements in HTML5 are a good examples of regions). Also, it can be used to group items for JavaScript to access.