In Java or other object oriented programming language, we often use Object and instance word interchangeably, but sometime it confuse beginners like hell. I have been often asked several times, whether object and instance is same thing or different? Why we sometime use object and sometime instance if they are same thing etc? This gives me idea to write a little bit about it. I will mostly talk on Java conventions perspective. Just like we use word function in C or C++  for a block of code, which can be called by its same, but in Java we refer them as methods. In Java functions are known as methods, similarly objects are known as instances in Java. You have a class, which represent a blueprint of a real world thing e.g. Car, and object represent a real world car e.g. your car, mine car, a red car or a blue car. They are also known as instances of car. One reason of calling instance may be because they are representation of that class at particular instant. In practice, use instance to say about one particular object, and use object to talk about many objects. By the way, it's also worth remembering that Java has class named Object, or java.lang.Object, which is the master class and every other class extend it. This is another reason why using instance is better because it will minimize confusion. So use Object when you want to talk about java.lang.Object and use instance when you want to talk about object of OOPS. Let's take a look more closely in next section.