Generally speaking, the designers (and translators) of KiCad have done a great job of using words with precision, and of minimizing ambiguity.
One word you have to look out for is "library".
KiCad has "libraries" of schematic symbols… stored in .lib files.
It also has "libraries" of footprints… stored in .kicad_mod files, which are stored in XX.pretty folders, and in the old and being-deprecated .mod files.
The difference, if any, between a module and a footprint is slight, but what module/ footprint means is very different from what schematic symbol means.
If you see "component", within KiCad, think "schematic symbol". "Component is used in a narrow sense within KiCad. In "the outside world", I might call a diode a "component"… but not when I was "speaking KiCad". Ther term "schematic symbol" is gradually replacing "component" in KiCad use, but you may still see it in older documentation. There is a schematic symbol for a diode, but the thing I can hold in my hand is not, to KiCad, a "component".
See also…
- File management (Where to put stuff. General issues)- Skills entry
- File management (Where to put stuff, schematic symbol and footprint defining files)- Skills entry