.. glossary:: Semantic Markup Semantic means that you are specifying *what* something is, instead of *how* it is being used. In Sphinx this means you specify what an object is, and Sphinx handles displaying and linking it properly in the page. Example: In HTML, ``<b>issue 72</b>`` to link an issue is bad. You're specifying how it is displayed. ``<span class="issue">issue 72</span>`` is much better, because you are saying that the exist is an ``issue``. Issues can then be styled independently.