Operad

Okay, so have you ever played with building blocks? You can make all sorts of different things with them, right? Well, an operad is kind of like a set of instructions for building things with those blocks.

Except instead of blocks, we're talking about mathematical objects called functions. And instead of just building random things, we're building things in a very specific way. An operad tells us exactly how to combine different functions together to make new functions.

The cool thing about operads is that they're really useful in lots of different areas of math and science. They're kind of like a tool that we can use to help solve problems in things like physics, computer science, and even genetics!