Cheats Codes

After reading your messages, I feel completely lost... I love the game "Heroes," and I've played it several times, but I don't understand the "professional slang" at all: if it's not too much trouble, could someone explain what a cheat, a patch, and other necessary terms are, or maybe provide a link to a dictionary? I would be very grateful.
P.S. By the way, does anyone know how to activate the console?
Thank you.