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

class object

    In object-oriented programming, an object of
   class "class" that represents a class at run time.  The
   existence of class objects allows introspection - the ability
   for a program to discover and modify attributes of its own code.
   (See self-modifying code).

   A class object may also be used for "housekeeping" tasks like
   keeping count of how many objects of the class have been created,
   though this may also be done by some kind of collection object.

   A class method is a method that operates on class objects.

   (2014-09-06)