Arrays allow us to organize multiple values of the same type into a single variable name. An array is declared with a base type and size, such as int[] grades = new int[100]. Individual elements in the array are accessed using an index from 0 to length-1. Arrays can be passed to methods by reference, allowing the method to modify the array elements. Multidimensional arrays organize data into rows and columns and are declared with multiple sets of brackets like int[][] table = new int[10][20].