In Magic the Gathering what does 'trample' mean?

Answer 1

'Trample' allows a creature to deal damage to a player even it is blocked. When damage is dealt, it needs only assign 'lethal' damage to the blockers, the rest is dealt to the player. 'Lethal damage' is considered to be damage equal to the blocker's toughness, it does not take 'Protection' or 'Indestructable' into account. So take a situation where an 8/8 trampler is blocked by a 1/1 creature with indestructable, and a 1/1 creature who has protection from the colour of the attacker. The attacker can deal 1 damage to each, and the remaining 6 to the opponent, it doesn't matter that both creatures survive the 'lethal' damage.

As a last note, a creature with both Trample and Deathtouch needs only deal a single point of damage to any blocker, regardless of toughness. So if that same creature above was blocked by two 3/3 creatures, it still can deal just one to each and the rest to the player. Without Deathtouch it would be forced to deal 3 to each, and only 2 to the player.