What is a named pipe?
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A Pipe used by kernel to access device
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A pipe to be used by the user to access device
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An abstraction to provide support for inter process communication
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A device
A named pipe (FIFO) is a special file type that provides inter-process communication (IPC) by allowing unrelated processes to exchange data through the filesystem as if it were a pipe.
A named pipe (FIFO) is an OS abstraction for inter-process communication that, unlike an anonymous pipe, has a name in the filesystem so unrelated processes (not just parent/child) can open and communicate through it by referencing that name. It isn't itself a physical device, nor is it specifically 'used by the kernel' or 'the user' to access a device — those mischaracterize its purpose, which is process-to-process data exchange, not device access.