What is the purpose of the break keyword in a loop?

The purpose of the break keyword in a loop is to exit the loop prematurely. When the break statement is encountered within a loop, it immediately terminates the loop's execution regardless of the loop's condition. This allows a programmer to stop the loop from running further based on certain conditions or logic within the loop.

For instance, if a loop is designed to iterate through a list, and a specific condition is met (like finding a particular item), the break keyword can be used to stop the loop at that point, thereby improving efficiency and preventing unnecessary iterations.

In contrast, skipping the rest of the code inside the loop pertains more to the use of keywords like continue, which allows the loop to skip to the next iteration without terminating the loop itself. Defining the loop's starting point is not related to the break keyword, as the loop's initialization is already set prior to its execution.