CoffeeScript is a programming language that transcompiles into JavaScript, aiming to enhance JavaScript's readability and maintainability. Its concise syntax adds syntactic sugar inspired by Ruby and Python, making it appealing for developers who prefer minimal and more intuitive code structures. CoffeeScript supports features like list comprehensions and pattern matching, facilitating more streamlined coding. While it strictly follows JavaScript semantics, the language offers refined syntax, making it suitable for both front-end and back-end development.