Ripping

Transferring the content of a CD to the hard disk.
Often this is combined with tagging as the ripper looks up the CD in a online database.

Not all rippers support tagging of all audio formats. WAV is a well known example.
Most of the time you won’t notice this as what you see on the screen is the content of the library (a database with meta info). The moment you move your audio files to another device you will notice that all information is gone.
A typical case of What You See Is Not What You Get.

In general ripping requires 2 stages

• ripping your entire CD collection
• re-ripping it because now you have found out how to do it

Make your homework first before you embark on ripping a substantial amount.
You have to choose an audio format. As a hundred buys you a terabyte of storage today, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a lossless format.

You have to choose your ripping software. EAC and dbPoweramp are the big names but popular players like WMP or iTunes can do the job too (Set them to secure mode)
The typical audiophile worry “Is my rip bit perfect”?