The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is a mathematical technique used to analyze the frequency content of discrete signals. It is based on the Fourier Series and takes advantage of the periodicity and orthogonality of exponentials. The DFT has various properties such as linearity, symmetry, convolution, and multiplication, and it is widely used in signal processing applications like image processing, audio signal processing, data compression, and spectral analysis. Additionally, efficient algorithms like the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) have been developed to reduce the computational complexity of the DFT.