What does the term 'rendering' refer to in Premiere Pro?

Rendering in Premiere Pro primarily refers to the generating of a preview with effects for smoother playback. When you apply effects, transitions, or color grading to a clip, the real-time playback may become choppy or lag due to the complexity of processing these enhancements on-the-fly. To improve performance and provide a seamless viewing experience within the timeline, Premiere Pro allows you to render these sections. This means the software processes the necessary information and creates preview files of the affected clips, enabling smoother playback during editing.

This process does not involve exporting the final video, which is a separate function, nor does it deal with converting video formats for compatibility or integrating audio and video elements. Instead, rendering is specifically focused on producing play-ready versions of clips with effects applied, enhancing the efficiency of the editing process.