1) Everything is object in Python, even types (what the hell, how can this happen ? See below bullet points)
2) "class" and "type" are the same thing, they are "type objects". "Type objects" can be subclassed. The other objects in Python are "concrete objects" which are instantiated of "type objects" (class or type) and they can't be subclassed.
3) "type" is a concrete instance of itself (what the hell).
4) "type" is metaclass which is used to create new classes/types
5) "object" is a "class" and it is a concrete instance of "type". Note, "object" doesn't inherit from "type", instead it is instantiated of "type" by the CPython runtime. CPython CORE need do special initialization for "type" and "object", because they are interdependent (Chicken and Egg problem). This is why "isinstance(object, type) == True".
The following pseudo code should help understand how CPython CORE init these two.
# object's class is type
object.__class__ = type
# PyType_Ready(type) sets:
type.__bases__ = (object,)
type.__class__ = type(object)