Search notes:

PowerShell cmdLet get-variable

get-variable varName returns a System.Management.Automation.PSVariable object:

PS C:\> $x = 42
PS C:\> (get-variable x).GetType().FullName
System.Management.Automation.PSVariable

Getting a variable's description

The PSVariable has a Description property which allows to describe some of the predefined PowerShell variables:

PS C:\> (get-variable PID).description
Current process ID

PS C:\> (get-variable informationPreference).description
Dictates the action taken when a command generates an item in the Information stream

See also

Powershell command noun: variable