What does stylistically offset mean in HTML5?

Question

I read that the < b > element in HTML 5 is used for "stylistically offset" text. What does this exactly mean?

Answer 1

"Offset" is meant as in "make stand out from the rest". "Stylistically" is meant as opposed to semantically; i.e. the element in question does not have any particularly different meaning from the rest, but is being highlighted purely for stylistic purposes.

In short: <b> is used to highlight content purely for design reasons. As opposed to other semantic tags like <strong>, which would, for example, make a screen reader put emphasis on the word while reading.