sudo is shorthand for SuperUser DO and it allows users on Linux systems to execute a command as if they were the superuser (i.e. as root). We prefix other commands with sudo to give them permission to run with elevated privileges, e.g.: sudo pacman -S neovim will install Neovim on an Arch Linux system.
When we run a command with sudo, we’re then prompted to enter our password before the command executes. This is a security feature, since it prevents malware from running commands as root.