"Emacs has special modes for many different types of files; a mode might colorize the file in some useful way, or add some functions or keybindings to easily manipulate them. Each buffer has one specific mode called the major mode. In addition, each buffer can have multiple minor modes, which enhance the major mode in some way. You can get information about the major and minor modes for the current buffer with M-x describe-mode or C-h m ..."