Initialise

In short: Initialising means giving a variable or object a first, valid value.

In more detail: Local variables must be initialised in Java before use. Attributes receive default values (0, false, null).

In Depth

int number = 0;                 // initialise variable
Account k = new Account(100.0); // initialise object via the constructor

Not to be confused with instantiating, which creates an object. See constructors, declaring variables.

See also: Instantiate, Constructors, Declaring Variables