What is "member variable"

n. (context software object-oriented English) A variable that is associated with a class and can be accessed from all its methods.

In object-oriented programming, a member variable (sometimes called a member field) is a variable that is associated with a specific object, and accessible for all its methods (member functions). In class-based languages, these are distinguished into two types: if there is only one copy of the variable shared with all instances of the class, it is called a class variable or static member variable; while if each instance of the class has its own copy of the variable, the variable is called an instance variable.