What's the difference between an application and a PCT application?

Jite Intellectual Property: What's the difference between an application and a PCT application?

This application is only a placeholder, and it will not lead to the grant of a patent. The submission of the PCT application will be delayed until the deadline for each requesting member country to submit its national application. PCT applicants who want to obtain patent protection in Europe still need to submit a separate application in each required European country/region, or make a separate application in the required European country/region designated by EPO. By default, most EPO applications only specify all member countries, because the cost is stable outside a few countries.