I could be wrong, but I think it's a rules-based approach to enforcing code standards in javascript and other languages.

Sounds about right. More broadly said, a linter shows things that you should fix.

Thanks. That cleared things up. Wikipedia can be confusing sometimes.

In general a linter is a syntax checker, and usually one that tries to flag code quality issues well as illegal syntax (e.g. "don't declare a function in a loop!").