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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext:

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the underlying concept defining the structure of the World Wide Web.[1] It is an easy-to-use and flexible format to share information over the Internet.

So any webpage that does not have hyper links is NOT hypertext?

second question:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_markup_language:

HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages.

So HTML is not hypertext because it is not displayed on an electronic device, but HTML that is displayed on an electronic device like this:

<b></b>

is considered hypertext?

(I was debating whether to post this here or in English.StackExchange but thought probably here is a more appropriate channel)

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So any webpage that does not have hyper links is NOT hypertext?

Correct. Trivially true and useless information. But true. No links means it's just text, not hypertext.

So HTML is not hypertext because it is not displayed on an electronic device, but HTML that is displayed on an electronic device ... is considered hypertext?

You have successfully split a hair that did not need to be split.

This is also true and also useless.

This is the ever-so-subtle distinction between source code (HTML) and object code (displayed web page).

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Your answer is right in the wiki article you quoted. Let me quote it again:

... the word "hypertext" has become generally accepted for branching and responding text ...

It's a very loose term, and I think it's safe to say that any text that can branch and response is hypertext (i.e. almost any text represented on an electronic device, nowadays).

HTML is simply a markup language to represent hypertext. It's not hypertext, itself. It allows a browser to render the hypertext.

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  • Difference like between source and executable. HTML is source, markup, with "<a href=...". Hypertext is rendered text with actual clickable link.
    – SF.
    Jul 12, 2011 at 12:56

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