current working directory
also: CWD, working directory, present working directory
The directory in which the shell is currently operating, displayed by pwd and changed using cd. It determines where relative paths begin and where new files are created by default.
The current working directory (CWD) is the folder location that your shell session is 'in' at any given moment. When you type a relative path (one not starting with /), the shell resolves it from this directory.
You can display your CWD with the pwd (print working directory) command, and change it using cd (change directory). For example, if your CWD is /home/alice and you type ls documents/, the shell looks in /home/alice/documents/.
The CWD is also significant for file creation and command execution—new files are written relative to the CWD unless an absolute path is specified, and commands like ./script.sh run programs in the current directory.