JavaScript, standardized under ECMAScript (often abbreviated as ES), defines the core features and syntax of JavaScript, ensuring consistency across different implementations and environments.

ECMAScript was developed and maintained by the ECMA International Organization from the year 1997. Each ECMAScript version is identified by a version number, such as ES5, ES6, ES7, etc.

However, Starting with ECMAScript 2015, the specification began using a year-based naming convention to align with the year of publication. For instance:

ECMAScript 2015 (formerly ES6)
ECMAScript 2016 (ES7)
ECMAScript 2017 (ES8)
ECMAScript 2018 (ES9)
ECMAScript 2019 (ES10)
ECMAScript 2020 (ES11)
ECMAScript 2021 (ES12)
ECMAScript 2022 (ES13)
ECMAScript 2023 (ES14)

Here’s a more detailed table of ECMAScript versions, including their release years and significant features:

Version

Release Year

Notable Features

ES1

1997

Basic language syntax, operators, functions, objects, and control structures.

ES2

1998

Minor updates and bug fixes.

ES3

1999

Regular expressions, try/catch for error handling, new Array methods (push, pop), and String methods (trim).

ES4

2000

(un-released)

ES5

2009

Strict mode, JSON support, new Array methods (forEach, map, filter), Object.defineProperty, getters/setters.

ES6/ECMAScript 2015

(Current Standard Version )

2015

Arrow functions, classes, modules, promises, let and const, template literals, destructuring, Map and Set.

ES7/ECMAScript 2016

2016

Exponentiation operator (**), Array.prototype.includes().

ES8/ECMAScript 2017

2017

async/await, Object.entries(), Object.values(), string padding methods (padStart, padEnd).

ES9/ECMAScript 2018

2018

Asynchronous iteration (for await...of), rest/spread properties for objects.

ES10/ECMAScript 2019

2019

Array.prototype.flat(), Array.prototype.flatMap(), Object.fromEntries().

ES11/ECMAScript 2020

2020

Optional chaining (?.), nullish coalescing operator (??), BigInt.

ES12/ECMAScript 2021

2021

Logical assignment operators (&&=, `

ES13/ECMAScript 2022

2022

Top-level await, class fields (public and private), and private methods.

ES14/ECMAScript 2023

2023

Array.prototype.findLast(), Array.prototype.findLastIndex(), hashbang (#!) grammar support.