PHP, which stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely-used open-source server-side scripting language especially suited for web development. Initially created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, PHP has evolved significantly over the years. One of its main strengths is its ability to embed directly into HTML, making it easy to create dynamic web pages. PHP is a key component of the LAMP stack, which includes Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and it's known for being flexible and relatively easy to learn for beginners. PHP supports a variety of databases and is compatible with major web servers, making it highly versatile. It's also popular due to its large community, extensive documentation, and numerous frameworks, such as Laravel and Symfony, which help streamline development processes. Despite facing competition from other languages like Python and JavaScript, PHP remains a crucial tool for web developers around the world.