Why was C++ mentioned as a 'usually' compiled language?

Question

In the C++ tag wiki, it is stated that

C++ is a ... (usually) compiled ... programming language ...

Yet Wikipedia and cplusplus.com assert that C++ is a compiled language without mentioning any exceptions.

Could you please tell us the reason why C++ is usually, yet not always, a compiled language? When can C++ be deemed a non-compiled language?

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Wikipedia:

C++ is a compiled language, with implementations of it available on many platforms.

cplusplus.com:

... is a compiled language. C++ compiles directly to a machine's native code, allowing

This may suggest that there are non-compiled forms of C++. What makes the wiki to state 'usually'?

Answer 1

Because "C++" as defined by the C++ Standard is only a programming language, operating in an abstract machine. Implementations are free to do whatever they want to emulate the behaviour of that abstract machine.

Therefore, regardless of whether someone actually makes a C++ interpreter, saying that C++ is always compiled would be an unfounded assumption.

Answer 2

There is no technical reason why you can't write a C++ interpreter rather than a compiler and I believe some have been written in the past.

C is also a (usually) compiled language, but I myself wrote a (slow, recursive decent) C89 interpreter some 20 years ago. C++ is just a (much) harder version of the same problem.