A thread in Java is the smallest unit of a process that can be scheduled for
execution. It represents the path of execution within a program, allowing the
program to operate more efficiently by doing multiple things at the same time.
In Java, all programs have at least one thread, known as the main thread,
which is provided by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) at the start of the
program's execution. Additional threads can be created to run concurrently
with the main thread, allowing for parallel execution of tasks. Threads can be
created by extending the Thread
class or implementing the Runnable
interface. They have their own program counter, stack, and local variables,
and each thread is assigned a priority that influences its order of execution.
Multithreading in Java is used to maximize CPU utilization and is often
referred to as concurrency in Java