What does it mean that a photo is “edited”?

It is important to know that for me, retouching does not mean making someone unrecognizable. I don’t make anyone’s skin/shape perfect. However, if there’s a distracting pimple on a face on the big day, or a skin imperfection that’s very unflattering in close-up photos, I will remove them of course. But for me, retouching is mainly about cropping and colour management.