To cite a work in HTML, you use <cite>:
In <cite>The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King</cite>, the author includes several appendices.
What if I want to mention a work without actually citing it? Is <cite> still the correct element or should I use something else?
I read <cite>The Lord of the Rings</cite> when I was thirteen.
I didn't see any guidance at MDN, and the closest question I could find here was (X)HTML Markup for Book Titles, which is about what to use instead of <em> for a book title but doesn't distinguish between a citation and a mention.
The WHATWG spec indicates that <cite> should be used for both citations and mentions:
The
citeelement represents the title of a work (e.g. a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theatre production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhibition, a legal case report, a computer program, etc.). This can be a work that is being quoted or referenced in detail (i.e., a citation), or it can just be a work that is mentioned in passing.