Which HTML element embeds a video in a webpage?

The <video> element embeds video playback in a webpage.

It lets authors place video content directly in HTML without requiring an external plugin such as Adobe Flash. A basic example can include a src URL and the controls attribute, which asks the browser to display playback controls. Other common attributes include autoplay, muted, loop, poster, width, and height, though autoplay policies often restrict videos that have sound.

The element was developed as part of HTML5’s effort to make multimedia a native web capability. The specification does not force every browser to support exactly the same codecs, so authors commonly place multiple <source> elements inside <video>. The browser selects a source it can decode, and text inside the element can serve as fallback content for older or unsupported user agents.

<embed> is a more general embedding element and is not the canonical semantic element for ordinary HTML video. Likewise, <media> and <movie> are not standard HTML elements. Accessibility is improved by supplying captions through a nested <track> element and, where appropriate, a transcript.