When programming for a SSL, no matter which language you choose (C++, Java, Ruby etc.), you probably encounter SSLContext object which would be used. I do not know what does SSLContext semantically means? When I search google for it, there just come many pages explaining the syntactical usage of such object for various programming languages.
My Question: What does SSLContext mean/do in terms of SSL? Regardless of the language which implements it.
SSL Context is a collection of ciphers, protocol versions, trusted certificates, TLS options, TLS extensions etc. Since it is very common to have multiple connections with the same settings they are put together in a context and the relevant SSL connections are then created based on this context. And to create a new connection you need only refer to the context which thus saves time and memory compared to the case you would have to re-create of all these settings.
EDIT: @EJP nicely describes this "collection" as factory. A SSL context is not the same as a SSL session even both are collections of settings. A session is what you get after the SSL handshake and covers only the cipher and protocol version both parties agreed on and also the exchanged key. Whereas the context covers all the ciphers and protocol versions and also the list of trusted certificates the local system (client or server) is willing to support when establishing a new TLS connection. Thus a SSL session describes an established SSL relation while the SSL context describes what you need to establish an SSL relation.