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Terminal

A terminal is the text window or session where you interact with the shell.

Terminology mastery

Terminal

People often call the terminal the command or the shell. Those are related, but not identical.

Pronunciation: TER-mih-nuhl Say it like: TER-mih-nuhl
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Plain meaning

A terminal gives you a place to type commands and see text results.

Explain it to a kid

A terminal is the text window where you talk to the computer with typed instructions.

In plain words

A terminal is the text place where you see and type command-line work.

Why learners confuse it

The terminal hosts the shell, and the shell runs commands, so the three ideas get mixed together easily.

Often confused with
  • shell
  • command
Examples
  • PowerShell can run inside a terminal window.
  • Bash often runs inside a terminal window.
Related topics
OS Foundations and Navigation

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 Scripting, Text, and Automation

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