What Does Common Language Runtime (CLR) Mean?
Common Language Runtime (CLR) is a managed execution environment that is part of Microsoft’s .NET framework. CLR manages the execution of programs written in different supported languages.
Techopedia Explains Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Developers write code in a supported .NET language, such as C# or VB.Net. The .NET compiler then converts it into CIL code. During run time, the CLR converts the CIL code into something that can be understood by the operating system. Alternately, the CIL code can be transformed into native code by using the native image generator (NGEN).