Let's try to answer this in points:

1. Ethereum is a Decentralized network
2. It is a computing platform that runs Smart Contracts
3. Uses blockchain technology to make apps free of censorship and fraud
4. Ethereum is an open source technology
5. It has the highest number of nodes , more than 20,000 making it a truly super blockchain computer
6. Smart contracts are written using Solidity a programming language supported by Ethereum

Ohh , we've written a lot of technical stuff in the above lines. OK enough of technical terms bombarded , right! in the following sections, let's try to understand these terms in simpler words.

When we say ethereum is a Decentralized p2p network , what exactly do we mean ?
It means Ethereum network doesn't have a single centralized server instead all the nodes participate to keep the network running and have access to the data. Thousands of computers from around the world make up the ethereum network and they all have access to all the transactions [ read data ] on the ethereum's blockchain.

Smart contracts are software codes which run on top of Ethereum Virtual Machine EVM. Smart contracts have states which are stored in the blockchain via transactions and these states can change and trigger operations again using transactions. Smart contracts are written using Solidity Programming Language.

Blockchain is a technology which is at the heart of modern day currencies like bitcoin and ether. This technology uses cryptography to verify ownership and uses a Decentralized p2p network. All the nodes have access to the blockchain and new blocks are added via a process called mining. Once the block has been added to the blockchain , It's next to impossible to erase the block or tamper it. This is ensured using reliable cryptographic techniques.

In this tutorial , we touched upon very basics of what the Ethereum network is and the different surrounding terms. We also fulfilled our objective of making the reader aware of the things commonly used in context of Ethereum like Smart Contracts , Blockchain , Solidity etc. We'll get to the depth of these topics in their respective tutorials.