What is "tone mapping in Lightroom"?

A lot of people here say they done a tittle tone mapping in Lightroom, is this the same as the colour tone adjustment of a RAW file. And if you don't have a RAW, what's the best way to do tone mapping?

Because everyone seems to be using PS / Lightroom here, they take for granted that everyone else is and I'd like to relate these terms to methods that are available to me.

I am also curioius. Is this tone mapping such as can be found in hdr software with the same type style effects achievable, or is it rather tone mapping of 12-bit raw images down to 8-bit, or perhaps tone mapping of images to specific printer gamuts? thanks.