Inheritance is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP) that allows a class, known as a child or subclass, to inherit properties and behaviors from another class, referred to as the parent or superclass. This mechanism promotes code reusability and organization by enabling subclasses to utilize methods and attributes defined in their parent classes without needing to rewrite them. Inheritance establishes an “IS-A” relationship, where a subclass can extend or modify the inherited features. It also supports polymorphism, allowing methods to be overridden for specialized behavior. Overall, inheritance is essential for creating structured and efficient code in OOP.