The difference between Classes, Objects, and Instances

A class is a blueprint which you use to create objects. An object is an instance of a class - it's a concrete 'thing' that you made using a specific class. So, 'object' and 'instance' are the same thing, but the word 'instance' indicates the relationship of an object to its class.

This is easy to understand if you look at an example. For example, suppose you have a class House. Your own house is an object and is an instance of class House. Your sister's house is another object (another instance of class House).

// Class House describes what a house is
class House {
    // ...
}

// You can use class House to create objects (instances of class House)
House myHouse = new House();
House sistersHouse = new House();

The class House describes the concept of what a house is, and there are specific, concrete houses which are objects and instances of class House.

Note: This is exactly the same in Java as in all object oriented programming languages.

Java (and any other programming language) is modeled in terms of types and values. At the theoretical level, a value is a representation for some quantum of information, and a type is a set of values. When we say value X is an instance of type Y, we are simply saying that X is a member of the set of values that is the type Y.

So that's what the term "instance" really means: it describes a relationship not a thing.

The type system of the Java programming language supports two kinds of types, primitive types and reference types. The reference types are further divided into the classes and array types. A Java object is an instance of a reference type.

An object is a class instance or an array. (JLS 4.3.1)

That's the type theoretic view.

In practice, most Java developers treat the words "instance" and "object" as synonyms. (And that includes me then I'm trying to explain something quickly.) And most developers use the word "value" rather than "instance" to refer to an instance of a primitive type.

A class is basically a definition, and contains the object's code. An object is an instance of a class

for example if you say

String word = new String();

the class is the String class, which describes the object (instance) word.

When a class is declared, no memory is allocated so class is just a template.

When the object of the class is declared, memory is allocated.

I like Jesper's explanation in layman terms

By improvising examples from Jesper's answer,

class House {
// blue print for House Objects
}

class Car {
// blue print for Instances of Class Car 
}

House myHouse = new House();
Car myCar = new Car();

myHouse and myCar are objects

myHouse is an instance of House (relates Object-myHouse to its Class-House) myCar is an instance of Car

in short

"myHouse is an instance of Class House" which is same as saying "myHouse is an Object of type House"