class vs type

[Colin J. Williams]

In Python Types and Objects, Shalabh 
Chaturvedi says (in the Python 3.0 
documentation - New Style Classes)

"The term class is traditionally used to 
imply an object created by the class 
statement. However, classes are now 
synonymous with types. Built-in types 
are usually not referred to as classes. 
This book prefers using the term type 
for both built-in and user created types."

Do we need two different words to 
describe what is essentially the same thing?

Colin W.