Interest-only loan. 
An interest-only loan is a loan in which for a set term the borrower pays only the interest on the principal balance, with the principal balance unchanged. At the end of the interest-only term the borrower may enter an interest-only mortgage, pay the principal, or (with some lenders) convert the loan to a principal and interest payment (or amortized) loan at his/her option.
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In the United States, a five or ten year interest-only period is typical. After this time, the principal balance is amortized for the remaining term. In other words, if a borrower had a thirty-year mortgage loan and the first ten years were interest only, at the end of the first ten years, the principal balance would be amortized for the remaining period of twenty years. The practical result is that the early payments (in the interest-only period) are substantially lower than the later payments. This gives the borrower more flexibility because they are not forced to make payments towards principal. Indeed, it also enables a borrower who expects to increase their salary substantially over the course of the loan to borrow more than they would have otherwise been able to afford, or investors to generate cashflow when they might not otherwise be able to. During the interest only years of the mortgage, the loan balance will not decrease unless the borrower makes additional payments towards principal. It is important to note that under a conventional amortizing mortgage, the portion of a payment that represents principal is very small in the early years (the same period of time that would be interest only). Interest only loans represent a somewhat higher risk for lenders, and therefore are subject to a slightly higher interest rate. Combined with little or no down payment, the adjustable rate (ARM) variety of interest only mortgages are sometimes indicitave of a buyer taking on too much risk- especially when that buyer is unlikely to qualify under more conservative loan structures.
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