Term insurance is a form of life insurance.
How term life insurance works is that you pay premiums for a fix amount of time. For example, a 20 year term means you pay the same amount of premiums for 20 years. At the end of the 20 year, you have options on what you want to do.
Do you still need life insurance at this point when you are older, have no debts, and have lots of money saved (hopefully)? If yes, you can convert the term policy into whole life, universal life, or into another term policy. You can also choose to renew the term policy every 1 to 5 years without having to convert, but each time you renew, the premiums will be higher because its base on the age you renew it at.
Term life insurance does not build cash value, which makes it different from the rest of the life insurance products such as whole life or universal life. Therefore term life insurance is cheaper than whole life or universal life insurance, which also means that most people can afford the right amount of coverage they really need at a lower cost.
Learn more about how term life insurance works.