inline element

Any HTML element that is rendered in the same position as normal plain text, i.e. to the right of the preceding text (for left-to-right scripts).

This contrasts with a block-level elements that is always placed below the preceding text line.

Inline elements typically specify formatting, e.g. <B> (bold), <SMALL> or the kind of content, e.g. <CODE>, <KBD>, though they also include things like inline images (<IMG>) and text areas (<TEXTAREA>).

http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/inline.html