<figure>
Self-contained content referenced from the main flow: images, code listings, tables, quotes, diagrams.
Baseline: Widely available · Grouping content
When to use it
When the content could move to an appendix without breaking the prose; caption it with figcaption.
When not to
Not every image needs a figure — only content the text refers to as a unit.
Example
console.log('hello');<figure>
<pre><code>console.log('hello');</code></pre>
<figcaption>Listing 1 — a captioned code sample.</figcaption>
</figure>