Asynchronous
In plain terms
Starting work without waiting for it to finish before moving on.
Going deeper
Asynchronous code initiates an operation and continues, handling the result later via callbacks, promises, or async/await. It keeps programs responsive during I/O waits.
Under the hood
Built on event loops and non-blocking I/O; avoids tying up threads while waiting on the network or disk.
Examples
async/await, fetch requests, Node.js I/O, message queues, callbacks.
Think of it like...
Like ordering food and doing other things until your number is called, instead of standing at the counter.