A tutorial is a lesson or guide that teaches you how to do something specific, usually step by step. When you're learning to use new software, you might watch a video tutorial that shows you exactly which buttons to click and what each tool does. When you're stuck on a tricky level in a video game, you might look up a written tutorial explaining how to solve the puzzle or defeat the boss.

Tutorials focus on practical skills rather than theory. Instead of explaining why something works, they show you how to do it. A math teacher might give a lecture about why long division works, but a tutorial would walk you through solving actual division problems until you can do them yourself.

In college, small discussion classes led by teaching assistants are sometimes called tutorials. But in everyday use, most people think of tutorials as helpful guides: a cooking tutorial that teaches you to crack an egg, an origami tutorial that shows you how to fold a paper crane, or the tutorial level in a video game that teaches you the controls before the real challenge begins.