TEXT (text) records are descriptive labels on hosts, so you could enter information into the DNS record that specified something useful about the machine the host pointed to.

Lately TXT records have started being used for new DNS based technologies such as Domain Keys and SPF (Sender Protocol Framework).

Unlike with most other record types, for TXT records the Data field is essentially free form and may even include spaces. When entering a string that includes spaces you must enclose the string in double quotes or the individual words will be separately quoted.