A dictionary is a data structure that stores a collection of key-value pairs. Each key is unique within the dictionary, and the values can be of any type. Dictionaries are widely used in programming languages for various purposes, such as storing configurations, representing mappings, or even as associative arrays.
Here's a basic example of a dictionary in Python:
```python
Creating a dictionary
my_dict = {
'name': 'Alice',
'age': 30,
'city': 'New York'
