Some commands and activities require one to act as "super user." The super user of a linux system is a special user caller root, but it is not recommended to login as root to perform normal day-to-day operations because you will not get any protection if you make a mistake. For example, you can easily delete the entire file system while acting as super user if you're not careful!
As a result, it is recommended to login as a normal user and "act as" super user only for those activities that require it.
A command can be executed as super user by prefixing it with sudo. (Super User Do)
sudo (command) (arguments)
Executes the specified command as if the root user invoked it.