DTDs and Doctypes in HTML, XML, and XHTML
"So What is a DTD?
The tags in the HTML language must be defined somewhere, right? They are defined in the DTD, which stands for Document Type Definition. In a DTD for HTML, all the HTML tags are defined. Everything is defined in the DTD -- the tags, the attributes, the possible values they can hold. Think of the DTD as the HTML tag dictionary: it lists all the tags, what they mean, and how they relate to each other.
Also, there are different DTDs because there are different versions of HTML:
HTML 4.01 Strict
HTML 4.01 Transitional
XHTML
