layout element
A layout element is an HTML tag used to define the physical appearance of characters in a Web document. Character highlights such as bold (<B>), underline (<U>) and italics (<I>) are all layout elements. Layout elements are also called physical tags.
Layout elements should not be used as logical tags, i.e. defining the structure of a document. But rather as highlights and emphasis indicators with a section of text. Most of the functions of layout elements are outside the philosophy of HTML and SGML (marking the structure rather than the appearance) and should be used sparingly.