What does “margin” refer to in CSS?

The term "margin" in CSS pertains to the space that exists around an element. This space creates a buffer zone between the element and its neighboring elements, allowing for improved layout and design. Margins are crucial for spacing elements apart, which helps to enhance readability and visual appeal on a webpage.

Understanding margins is fundamental for web design, as they can be set to specific values using different units (like pixels, percentages, or ems), and they can collapse or expand based on the properties of adjacent elements. This functionality assists designers in achieving a desired aesthetic while ensuring that elements do not crowd each other.

In contrast, the other terms refer to different aspects of an element's layout: the space inside the element's border describes padding, the combined height is related to the box model, and text alignment concerns how text is positioned within the element but does not pertain to spacing around the element itself.