The meta tag defines metadata about an HTML document. Metadata is data (information) about data.

meta tags always go inside the head element, and are typically used to specify character set, page description, keywords, author of the document
and viewport settings.

Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but is machine parsable.

Metadata is used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), and other web
services.

Learn more about it here and here