a monitor is a synchronization construct that allows threads to have both mutual exclusion and the ability to wait (block) for a certain condition to become true. Monitors also have a mechanism for signalling other threads that their condition has been met. A monitor consists of a mutex (lock) object and condition variables. A condition variable is basically a container of threads that are waiting for a certain condition. Monitors provide a mechanism for threads to temporarily give up exclusive access in order to wait for some condition to be met, before regaining exclusive access and resuming their task.
