The meta title is the clickable headline that represents a page in search results and on browser tabs. Despite the name, it is not a meta tag at all: it is the HTML <title> element, and it remains one of the strongest on-page signals for both ranking and click-through.
The two terms describe the same thing. Developers call it the title tag because it lives in the <title> element inside the <head>; many marketers say "meta title" because it sits near the real meta tags. Whatever the label, it is separate from the meta description (the grey summary text) and from the on-page H1 heading.
Strong titles are a quick win in on-page SEO.
Since 2021, Google frequently replaces the title shown in results, often using your H1 or anchor text instead, when it judges your title unhelpful, keyword-stuffed, or mismatched to the query. One page titled "Cheap Shoes Buy Shoes Online Shoes Store" was swapped by Google for the brand's cleaner H1. Writing a concise, honest title lowers the odds of an unwanted rewrite. For a closer look at the underlying element, see page title.