What is "inode"

n. (context computing English) A data structure representing an object in a Unix (or similar) file system.

In a Unix-style file system, the inode is a data structure used to represent a filesystem object, which can be one of various things including a file or a directory. Each inode stores the attributes and disk block location(s) of the filesystem object's data. Filesystem object attributes may include manipulation metadata (e.g. change, access, modify time), as well as owner and permission data (e.g. group-id, user-id, permissions).

Directories are lists of names assigned to inodes. The directory contains an entry for itself, its parent, and each of its children.