A violin plot is a data visualization tool that combines a box plot and a kernel density plot. It displays the distribution of a dataset across different categories, showing the probability density of the data at different values. The shape of the "violin" represents the density of the data, allowing for easy comparison between groups. Violin plots are particularly useful for visualizing the distribution of continuous data, such as test scores or measurement values, across different categories, like age groups or treatment types. They provide insights into the data's spread, central tendency, and potential outliers.