"Wheel" is the Python-specific terminology for a pre-built package (all non-Python code has been compiled ahead of time, and the necessary object files put in t

"Wheel" is the Python-specific terminology for a pre-built package (all non-Python code has been compiled ahead of time, and the necessary object files put in the right places in the package's folder hierarchy), such that installers can simply copy the files (and do a little bit of book-keeping, and possibly pre-compile Python source code to bytecode although the interpreter will do that on demand anyway). The format is originally documented in https://peps.python.org/pep-0427/ https://peps.python.org/pep-0427/ . This contrasts with "sdist", short for "source distribution", which potentially contains code in other languages which must be compiled on the end user's machine (which possibly involves downloading a corresponding build system and setting up a temporary build environment at install time). Wheel and sdist distributions are successors to a legacy "egg" format. The PEP doesn't explain, but it's commonly held that the name "wheel" is a reference to wheels of cheese, based on PyPI's prior existence as "the cheese shop" (itself a reference to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A). There might be some ancient discussion on the (now archived and inactive) mailing list to support this.