The paragraph is the fundamental organizational unit for all prose texts, being the smallest regular unit into which prose can be divided. Prose can appear in all TEI texts, not simply in those using the prose base (section ); the paragraph is therefore described here, as an element which can appear in any kind of text.

Paragraphs can contain any of the other elements described within this chapter, as well as some other elements which are specific to individual text types. We distinguish phrase-level elements, which must be entirely contained within a paragraph and cannot appear except within one, from chunks, which can appear between, but not within, paragraphs, and from inter-level elements, which can appear either within a single paragraph or between paragraphs. The class of phrases includes emphasized or quoted phrases, names, dates, etc. The class of inter-level elements includes bibliographic citations, notes, lists, etc. The class of chunks includes the paragraph itself.

Because paragraphs may appear in different base or additional tag sets, their possible contents may differ in different kinds of documents. In particular, additional elements not listed in this chapter may appear in paragraphs in certain kinds of text. However, the elements described in this chapter are always by default available in all kinds of text.

The paragraph is marked using the p element:

If a consistent internal subdivision of paragraphs is desired, the s or seg (segment) elements may be used, as discussed in chapters and respectively. More usually, however, paragraphs have no firm internal structure, but contain prose encoded as a mix of characters, entity references, phrases marked as described in the rest of this chapter, and embedded elements like lists, figures, or tables.

Since paragraphs are usually explicitly marked in Western texts, typically by indentation, the application of the p tag usually presents few problems.

In some cases, the body of a text may comprise but a single paragraph:

I fully appreciate Gen. Pope's splendid achievements with their invaluable results; but you must know that Major Generalships in the Regular Army, are not as plenty as blackberries. ]]> A fly built a castle, a tall and mighty castle. There came to the castle the Crawling Louse. Who, who's in the castle? Who, who's in your house? said the Crawling Louse. I, I, the Languishing Fly. And who art thou? I'm the Crawling Louse.

Then came to the castle the Leaping Flea. Who, who's in the castle? said the Leaping Flea. I, I, the Languishing Fly, and I, the Crawling Louse. And who art thou? I'm the Leaping Flea.

Then came to the castle the Mischievous Mosquito. Who, who's in the castle? said the Mischievous Mosquito. I, I, the Languishing Fly, and I, the Crawling Louse, and I, the Leaping Flea. And who art thou? I'm the Mischievous Mosquito. ]]>

The p element is formally declared as follows: