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The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To use a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass

type is its own metaclass. The class of a class is a metaclass-- the body of a class is the arguments passed to the metaclass that is used to construct the class.

The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To use a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass

type is its own metaclass. The class of a class is a metaclass-- the body of a class is the arguments passed to the metaclass that is used to construct the class.

Here you can read about how to use metaclasses to customize class construction.

The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To use a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass

The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To use a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass

type is its own metaclass. The class of a class is a metaclass-- the body of a class is the arguments passed to the metaclass that is used to construct the class.

The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To define a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass

The tl;dr version

The type(obj) function gets you the type of an object.

The type() of a class is its metaclass.

To use a metaclass:

class Foo(object):
    __metaclass__ = MyMetaClass