RAM stands for Random Access Memory. In common vernacular, the definition of RAM is the type of computer memory that holds running software, parts of your operating system, parts of word processing files as you work on them, etc.

The more RAM you have the more information your computer can quickly access. This is because your computer loads applications, music, graphics, and other files from external storage (CD-ROMs, hard drives, USB flash drives, DVD-ROMs, etc.) into RAM as RAM is accessed much faster than these other storage mechanisms.

Though your RAM is limited, when you work on more applications and files than can normally be fit into RAM, most operating systems perform a mechanism called 'thrashing'. This uses your hard drive as "virtual" memory. Though virtual memory slows down your computer's processing since hard drives are slower to read and write to than RAM, it allows your computer to perform more tasks than if it relied on RAM alone for holding information.

Though RAM is fast, there is a downside. When you turn your computer on and off, information in RAM disappears. This is why you should regularly save open files to your hard drive or other external media; files saved to external media should not get erased whenever you turn your computer off. This is also why it takes so long to boot up modern computers; all of the operating system information has to be reloaded into memory.

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