ORM
In plain terms
A tool that maps database tables to objects in your programming language.
Going deeper
An Object-Relational Mapper lets you work with rows as objects and write queries in your language instead of raw SQL. It boosts productivity but can hide performance costs if used carelessly.
Under the hood
Eases CRUD but can generate inefficient queries and hide the N+1 problem; for complex reporting, raw SQL is often clearer and faster.
Examples
Entity Framework, Hibernate, SQLAlchemy, Django ORM, Prisma, Sequelize.
Think of it like...
Like a translator at a meeting: you speak your native language (objects) and they handle the conversation with the database in SQL.