Bounce/Render
Bouncing or rendering is the process of converting 1 or more tracks into a single audio track. When bouncing audio track(s), the bounced track has all the pan, volume, EQ, automation, or plugin changes to the sound performed by the DAW "on top" of the original audio track(s). Similarly, bouncing a MIDI track that relies on a virtual instrument to generate audio will contain its audio output.
If the DAW exceeds its available resources, the audio may contain pop, crackles, and stuttering. Bouncing reduces the resource requirements of the DAW. Instead of having to perform all the computations on multiple tracks to generate the audio output, the bounced audio track can replace them (or they can be disabled). Then all the DAW has to do is play the bounced track. For a resource intensive project with lots of tracks with lots of real-time processing, bouncing frees up resources that can be used to record or program more tracks...or to simply listen to the track without unwanted distortion to the output.