A development environment is an integrated set of programming tools, usually centered around a text editor.
A development environment is a preconfigured environment used during development lifecycle. Preferably hidden from the end user.
Key tools includes a text editor, commonly extended with other tools for debugging, version-control, automating tools, database access or project management features. Such an editor called ide.
Commonly environment-variables configured for seamless tool usage.
Compared to the production-environment stability, performance and backup creation may be sacrificed in favor of more logging, easier bug detection or rapid iterations.