What is the primary use of <span> in HTML?

The tag in HTML is primarily used to apply styles to a specific part of text inline. This is particularly useful for styling small portions of text without affecting the entire block of content. The is an inline element, which means it does not create a new line in the document flow and allows you to target specific text or sections for styling purposes, such as changing color, font, or adding other text-related styles.

This capability is essential for web developers and designers who wish to enhance the presentation of text within a block element, like a paragraph, without disrupting the structure or layout of the rest of the content. By wrapping text in a tag, CSS can be applied just to that segment, enabling granular control over text appearance, which is a common requirement in web design.

The other choices do not correctly represent the function of the tag. For instance, defining an image pertains to the tag, while creating block-level elements is a feature of tags like

. Inserting multimedia is related to the