What role does the meta tag play in specifying character encoding in PHP web pages?

The meta tag plays a crucial role in specifying character encoding in PHP web pages as it informs the browser about the character set being used in the document. To specify character encoding in PHP web pages, you can add a meta tag with the charset attribute set to the desired encoding, such as UTF-8. This ensures that the browser interprets the text correctly and displays special characters accurately.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Your Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Your PHP web page content here -->
</body>
</html>