UML, as the name implies, is a modeling language. It may be used to visualize, specify, construct, and document the artifacts of a software system. It provides a set of notations (e.g. rectangles, lines, ellipses, etc.) to create a visual model of the system. Like any other language, UML has its own syntax (symbols and sentence formation rules) and semantics (meanings of symbols and sentences). Also, we should clearly understand that UML is not a system design or development methodology, but can be used to document object-oriented and analysis results obtained using some methodology.
UML contains an extensive set of notations and suggests construction of many types of diagrams. It has successfully been used to model both large and small problems. The elegance of UML, its adoption by OMG, and a strong industry backing have helped UML find widespread acceptance. UML is now being used in a large number of software development projects worldwide.