Scripting languages are programming languages that don’t require an explicit compilation step.
For example, in the normal case, you have to compile a C program before you can run it. But in the normal case, you don’t have to compile a JavaScript program before you run it. So JavaScript is sometimes called a “scripting” language.
This line is getting more and more blurry since compilation can be so fast with modern hardware and modern compilation techniques. For instance, V8, the JavaScript engine in Google Chrome and used a lot outside of the browser as well, actually compiles the JavaScript code on the fly into machine code, rather than interpreting it. (In fact, V8’s an optimizing two-phase compiler.)
Also note that whether a language is a “scripting” language or not can be more about the environment than the language. There’s no reason you can’t write a C interpreter and use it as a scripting language (and people have). There’s also no reason you can’t compile JavaScript to machine code and store that in an executable file (and people have). The language Ruby is a good example of this: The original implementation was entirely interpreted (a “scripting” language), but there are now multiple compilers for it.
Some examples of “scripting” languages (e.g., languages that are traditionally used without an explicit compilation step):
- Lua
- JavaScript
- VBScript and VBA
- Perl
And a small smattering of ones traditionally used with an explicit compilation step:
- C
- C++
- D
- Java (but note that Java is compiled to bytecode, which is then interpreted and/or recompiled at runtime)
- Pascal
…and then you have things like Python that sit in both camps: Python is widely used without a compilation step, but the main implementation (CPython) does that by compiling to bytecode on-the-fly and then running the bytecode in a VM, and it can write that bytecode out to files (.pyc, .pyo) for use without recompiling.
That’s just a very few, if you do some research you can find a lot more.