The word "Operad" was used for the first time in "The Geometry of Iterated Loop Spaces" by J. Peter May as a mix between the words "operations" and "monad". Initially they were studied in homotopy theory but more recently they became fondamental tools in many different areas: homological algebra, category theory, algebraic geometry, mathematical physics, logic, and algebraic topology. The aim of this talk is to present a definition and possible motivations to these important objects, starting from the particular case of vector spaces and then generalizing it.
