A mechanism available in bash and ksh for grouping scalar variables together. The scalar variables stored in an array are accessed using a single name in conjunction with a number. This number is referred to as an index.

a collection of simple variables of the same type to which the computer can efficiently assign a list of values

a list of scalars, hence in perl they are often refered to as lists

a pointer variable

a reference variable

a variable that holds many scalar variables in numbered slots

a variable with more than one value