• An object is an instance of a class

An example of an instance:   a specific Blue Jay is a member   of the species Cyanocitta cristata.

 Programmers can define new object types.

 An object type is called a class.

 The class defines the characteristics of a collection of data values, and provides methods to interact with the data.

 An object is a reference to a specific class instance, that owns its corresponding data values.