<small>

For de-emphasizing inline or blocks of text, use the small tag.

This line of text is meant to be treated as fine print.

<em>

For emphasising a snippet of text.

The following snippet of text is emphasised.

<strong>

For strongly emphasising a snippet of text.

The following snippet of text is strongly emphasised.

<u>

For underlining a snippet of text.

The following snippet of text is underlined for emphasis.

<mark>

For marking a snippet of text such as a search term.

The following snippet of text is marked as found.

Feel free to also use <b> and <i>

In HTML5 <b> is meant to highlight words or phrases without conveying additional importance while <i> is mostly for voice, technical terms, etc.