API

API is short for Application Programming Interface. It is a way for different pieces of software to talk to each other.

Think of it like a restaurant menu. You (the website) tell the kitchen (the server) what you want. The kitchen prepares it and brings it back. The menu is the API — it tells you what is possible and how to ask for it.

When you visit a website that shows the latest news, the site uses an API to ask a separate server: "give me the latest news." The server sends back the data, and the site shows it to you.

APIs are everywhere on the web. Every time a website shows data that comes from somewhere else — weather, prices, social media posts — there is probably an API involved.