= DOM text node
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A <DOM text node> stores character data within a <DOM tree>. It represents text content rather than an <HTML element> with a tag name. One element can contain several text nodes separated by other nodes, and adjacent text nodes can also exist as distinct objects.<DOM Standard by WHATWG>[Text interface and node tree definitions]{ref}
For example, start with an empty paragraph and append `document.createTextNode("A")` followed by `document.createTextNode("B")`. The paragraph has two child nodes, its combined text content is AB, and it has no element children. Calling `paragraph.normalize()` merges adjacent text nodes and removes empty ones, so this example then has one text child containing AB.<DOM Standard by WHATWG>[Document.createTextNode, Node.textContent and Node.normalize]{ref}
The distinction matters when editing. An operation expecting the first child to be an element can instead encounter a whitespace text node produced between tags. Traversing all child nodes and traversing only element children answer different questions.
Text insertion also differs from parsing markup. Assigning `paragraph.textContent = "<em>Hi</em>"` supplies literal text containing angle brackets; it does not create an emphasis element. A parser-driven operation has different semantics. Finally, rendered whitespace can be collapsed or wrapped by <CSS>, so the number and contents of text nodes alone do not determine the exact visible line layout.
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