Caching
Caching speeds up a site by storing a ready-made copy of something and reusing it, instead of rebuilding it from scratch on every request. It happens in several layers at once: the visitor’s browser, your server, and the CDN in front of it. Most caching problems come from those layers disagreeing about what the current version is. When it works, caching is invisible and the site just feels fast; when it’s misconfigured, people see stale or inconsistent pages.
How I use this
Nearly every "the site shows the old version" complaint I get traced back to two caching layers disagreeing about what's current, not to a broken page. So when caching misbehaves, I check the layers in order (browser, then host, then CDN) rather than clearing everything at once and hoping.
Also known as: web caching, cache layer, caching strategy, cached content
Where this term comes up
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Glossary entries are a starting point. The real question is usually what to do about the thing once you understand it.
When you are ready to go further, the related guides take this from definition to fix.
And if you would rather just ask a person, I read everything that comes to christopher@thisismyurl.com.
I have been working in WordPress since 2007, so most of these terms come with a story.
Still mapping the basics? The full glossary is here whenever you need it.