Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. It’s a free service that links a profile picture to your email address, so the same image can follow you across many different websites automatically.
You’ve likely seen this in action without realizing it — the small profile photo next to a blog comment or a forum post is often pulled directly from Gravatar, based on the commenter’s email address.
How WordPress Uses It
WordPress has built-in Gravatar support for comments and author bios. When someone leaves a comment, WordPress checks if their email is registered with Gravatar and displays the matching image if one exists, or a generic placeholder if not.
Setting Up Your Own
Setting one up is simple: create a free account at gravatar.com, upload a photo, and link it to the email address you use most often for commenting or writing online. From then on, that photo can appear automatically on any Gravatar-supporting site.