A set is a collection of distinct objects, known as elements or members, grouped together based on a common property. For example, the set of fruits might include apple, banana, and orange. Sets can be finite, like the set of days of the week, or infinite, like the set of natural numbers. In mathematics, sets are often represented using curly braces, such as 1, 2, 3. They can be used to perform various operations, like union (combining sets) and intersection (finding common elements). Understanding sets is essential for studying topics like probability and statistics.