diff --git a/__tests__/purgeUnusedStyles.test.js b/__tests__/purgeUnusedStyles.test.js
index a3d940b317ba..b9086faf28fa 100644
--- a/__tests__/purgeUnusedStyles.test.js
+++ b/__tests__/purgeUnusedStyles.test.js
@@ -18,6 +18,16 @@ function suppressConsoleLogs(cb, type = 'warn') {
   }
 }
 
+function extractRules(root) {
+  let rules = []
+
+  root.walkRules(r => {
+    rules = rules.concat(r.selectors)
+  })
+
+  return rules
+}
+
 const config = {
   ...defaultConfig,
   theme: {
@@ -302,9 +312,8 @@ test('can purge all CSS, not just Tailwind classes', () => {
       expect(result.css).toContain('html')
       expect(result.css).toContain('body')
       expect(result.css).toContain('samp')
-      expect(result.css).not.toContain('button')
-      expect(result.css).not.toContain('legend')
-      expect(result.css).not.toContain('progress')
+      expect(result.css).not.toContain('.example')
+      expect(result.css).not.toContain('.sm\\:example')
 
       assertPurged(result)
     })
@@ -355,3 +364,102 @@ test('the `conservative` mode can be set explicitly', () => {
       expect(result.css).toContain('.text-center')
     })
 })
+
+test('element selectors are preserved by default', () => {
+  const OLD_NODE_ENV = process.env.NODE_ENV
+  process.env.NODE_ENV = 'production'
+  const inputPath = path.resolve(`${__dirname}/fixtures/tailwind-input.css`)
+  const input = fs.readFileSync(inputPath, 'utf8')
+
+  return postcss([
+    tailwind({
+      ...config,
+      purge: {
+        content: [path.resolve(`${__dirname}/fixtures/**/*.html`)],
+        mode: 'all',
+      },
+    }),
+  ])
+    .process(input, { from: inputPath })
+    .then(result => {
+      process.env.NODE_ENV = OLD_NODE_ENV
+      const rules = extractRules(result.root)
+      ;[
+        'a',
+        'blockquote',
+        'body',
+        'code',
+        'fieldset',
+        'figure',
+        'h1',
+        'h2',
+        'h3',
+        'h4',
+        'h5',
+        'h6',
+        'hr',
+        'html',
+        'img',
+        'kbd',
+        'ol',
+        'p',
+        'pre',
+        'strong',
+        'sup',
+        'table',
+        'ul',
+      ].forEach(e => expect(rules).toContain(e))
+
+      assertPurged(result)
+    })
+})
+
+test('preserving element selectors can be disabled', () => {
+  const OLD_NODE_ENV = process.env.NODE_ENV
+  process.env.NODE_ENV = 'production'
+  const inputPath = path.resolve(`${__dirname}/fixtures/tailwind-input.css`)
+  const input = fs.readFileSync(inputPath, 'utf8')
+
+  return postcss([
+    tailwind({
+      ...config,
+      purge: {
+        content: [path.resolve(`${__dirname}/fixtures/**/*.html`)],
+        mode: 'all',
+        preserveHtmlElements: false,
+      },
+    }),
+  ])
+    .process(input, { from: inputPath })
+    .then(result => {
+      process.env.NODE_ENV = OLD_NODE_ENV
+
+      const rules = extractRules(result.root)
+
+      ;[
+        'blockquote',
+        'code',
+        'em',
+        'fieldset',
+        'figure',
+        'h1',
+        'h2',
+        'h3',
+        'h4',
+        'h5',
+        'h6',
+        'hr',
+        'img',
+        'kbd',
+        'li',
+        'ol',
+        'pre',
+        'strong',
+        'sup',
+        'table',
+        'ul',
+      ].forEach(e => expect(rules).not.toContain(e))
+
+      assertPurged(result)
+    })
+})
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7e765255e106..91d72c784d90 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
     "color": "^3.1.2",
     "detective": "^5.2.0",
     "fs-extra": "^8.0.0",
+    "html-tags": "^3.1.0",
     "lodash": "^4.17.20",
     "node-emoji": "^1.8.1",
     "normalize.css": "^8.0.1",
diff --git a/src/lib/purgeUnusedStyles.js b/src/lib/purgeUnusedStyles.js
index 8058ce1df9ac..7ba4a2a89d3d 100644
--- a/src/lib/purgeUnusedStyles.js
+++ b/src/lib/purgeUnusedStyles.js
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import _ from 'lodash'
 import postcss from 'postcss'
 import purgecss from '@fullhuman/postcss-purgecss'
 import log from '../util/log'
+import htmlTags from 'html-tags'
 
 function removeTailwindMarkers(css) {
   css.walkAtRules('tailwind', rule => rule.remove())
@@ -75,7 +76,11 @@ export default function purgeUnusedUtilities(config, configChanged) {
         // Capture classes within other delimiters like .block(class="w-1/2") in Pug
         const innerMatches = content.match(/[^<>"'`\s.(){}[\]#=%]*[^<>"'`\s.(){}[\]#=%:]/g) || []
 
-        return broadMatches.concat(innerMatches)
+        if (_.get(config, 'purge.preserveHtmlElements', true)) {
+          return [...htmlTags].concat(broadMatches).concat(innerMatches)
+        } else {
+          return broadMatches.concat(innerMatches)
+        }
       },
       ...config.purge.options,
     }),
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 3a0c15300211..3a6b46240878 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -2761,6 +2761,11 @@ html-escaper@^2.0.0:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/html-escaper/-/html-escaper-2.0.0.tgz#71e87f931de3fe09e56661ab9a29aadec707b491"
   integrity sha512-a4u9BeERWGu/S8JiWEAQcdrg9v4QArtP9keViQjGMdff20fBdd8waotXaNmODqBe6uZ3Nafi7K/ho4gCQHV3Ig==
 
+html-tags@^3.1.0:
+  version "3.1.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/html-tags/-/html-tags-3.1.0.tgz#7b5e6f7e665e9fb41f30007ed9e0d41e97fb2140"
+  integrity sha512-1qYz89hW3lFDEazhjW0yVAV87lw8lVkrJocr72XmBkMKsoSVJCQx3W8BXsC7hO2qAt8BoVjYjtAcZ9perqGnNg==
+
 http-signature@~1.2.0:
   version "1.2.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/http-signature/-/http-signature-1.2.0.tgz#9aecd925114772f3d95b65a60abb8f7c18fbace1"