div vs span

Neither element carries semantic meaning. By default div is a block element and span is inline.

<div class="card">
  Status: <span class="status">active</span>
</div>

In practice: div groups part of a layout, and span marks out part of a text or other inline content.

To be precise: CSS can change their display, but that doesn't change the element's semantics. A default span doesn't behave like a rectangular block with a set width and height.