A ternary operation is a type of operation that takes three arguments or operands. It is often used in programming and mathematics to simplify conditional statements. The most common example is the ternary conditional operator, which allows for a concise way to express an if-else statement. In many programming languages, it is represented as `condition ? value_if_true : value_if_false`. In this operation, if the specified condition evaluates to true, the first value is returned; otherwise, the second value is returned. Ternary operations can make code more readable and compact, especially when dealing with simple conditions. However, they can also reduce clarity if overused or applied to complex logic.