PHP
In plain terms
A server-side scripting language built for the web.
Going deeper
PHP embeds directly into HTML to generate dynamic pages and powers a huge share of the web. Modern versions added types, performance, and proper frameworks.
Under the hood
Historically criticized for inconsistent APIs, but PHP 8's JIT, typed properties, and frameworks like Laravel modernized it considerably.
Examples
WordPress, Wikipedia, Laravel, Drupal, Facebook's early codebase.
Think of it like...
Like a workhorse delivery van that's unglamorous but quietly carries a big chunk of the internet's traffic.