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A MUTual EXclusion (mutex) is a program object that prevents simultaneous access to a shared resource. This concept is used in concurrent programming with a critical section, a piece of code in which processes or threads access a shared resource. Only one thread owns the mutex at a time, thus a mutex with a unique name is created when a program starts. When a thread holds a resource, it has to lock the mutex from other threads to prevent concurrent access to the resource. Upon releasing the resource, the thread unlocks the mutex.

Source: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/25629/mutual-exclusion-mutex