The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

batch file

    (Or script) A text file containing
   operating system commands which are executed automatically
   by the command-line interpreter.  In Unix, this is called
   a "shell script" since it is the Unix shell which includes
   the command-line interpreter.  Batch files can be used as a
   simple way to combine existing commands into new commands.

   In Microsoft Windows, batch files have filename extension,
   ".bat" or ".cmd".  A special example is autoexec.bat which
   MS-DOS runs when Windows starts.

   (2009-09-14)