A collection of data stored on a computer with a specific name and format. Like a digital document, photo, or song that you can save and organize.
Your vacation photos, work documents, and music songs are all different types of files stored on your device.
A 'file' is a general data unit (name + bytes + metadata). Cloud providers offer managed file storage services (NFS/SMB) to store and share files across servers; object storage can also be accessed in a file-like way via gateways or FUSE tools, but it is not the same as a true file system.