What is the difference between HTML tags and elements?

Question

I've noticed that most people use the words "HTML tag" and "HTML element" interchangeably.

But what is the difference between them?

I think the tag is in the source code and the element is the tag in the DOM that is processed (by the browser). am I wrong?

Answer 1

Source: 456bereastreet.com: HTML Tags, Elements and Attributes

Answer 2

HTML tags simply open or close entities. For example:

<p> and </p> are called HTML tags

HTML elements include start tags, end tags, and content (no content tag is optional) For example:

<p>This is the content</p>: This complete thing is called an HTML element