Binary trees are a non-linear data structure that impose a hierarchical structure on a collection of items. They consist of nodes connected by edges, with one root node and no cycles. Binary trees have many applications including representing directory structures, organizational charts, and mathematical expressions. Common tree terminology includes root, child, parent, leaf, internal node, and sibling nodes. Traversing a binary tree involves visiting each node exactly once using preorder, inorder, or postorder traversal methods.