Terminal Glossary
The text-based interface through which a person interacts with a shell and command-line programs.
Terminal
A terminal is the text-based interface through which a person interacts with a shell and command-line programs.
Historically, a terminal was a physical keyboard-and-screen device connected to a larger computer. Today it is usually a terminal-emulator application such as Terminal on macOS, Windows Terminal, or iTerm2.
Opening a terminal normally starts a shell inside it. The terminal displays characters and accepts keystrokes; the shell interprets the commands. This is why saying “type it into Bash” and “type it into the terminal” often leads to the same practical action even though the terms name different layers.