(Found off of IGN via Google Images)
First of all, don't panic! Tiers are simple enough to understand once they've been broken down, and panicking is just going to slow the learning process down.
In a nutshell, tiers are the Pokémon community's way of breaking down the competitive spectrum into measured sections, and also help balance competitive game-play. I'll be going over all of the notable tiers (including Little Cup, which I'll end with) in this post.
Let's first look at the tier that I've talked about arguably the most (in going over tournament regulations): the Uber tier.
Uber describes Pokémon that are too powerful for the ordinary competitive game, which includes everything in the Over-Used tier and below. Uber Pokémon are typically very difficult to counter effectively/efficiently, and may include version mascots (Mewtwo, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Groudon, Kyogre, Dialga, Palkia, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem, White Kyurem [but not Black Kyurem], Xernas, Yveltal, Zygarde...sorry if I missed anyone) and various other legendary Pokémon. However, not all legendaries are a part of the Uber tier.
Over-Used (OU) is a tier which includes the most commonly-used Pokémon in standard competitive play. Pokémon that are OU in one generation may not be in a future generation. For example, in Generation 1, when there were only one-hundred and fifty (one) Pokémon, Golem was considered to be a part of the OU tier and a Pokémon to be as a standard part of one's team. However, as the Pokémon roster expanded, Golem began falling into lower tiers starting in Ruby/Sapphire, and is currently rather low-ranked (Smogon puts Golem into Neverused). If a Pokémon species is not used enough by players, it will fall into Underused.
Borderline consists of Pokémon that are deemed too powerful for Underused, yet are not used enough to make it into OU.
Underused (UU) is made up of Pokémon that aren't used enough to make into OU. UU-bound Pokémon are typically outdone by Pokémon of higher tiers due to lower base stats, moves available to them, or available Abilities. It's common to see UU Pokémon in battles composed otherwise of OU Pokémon, simply because UU Pokémon have their own niche.
Borderline 2 are much like Borderline Pokémon, except that instead of being too strong for UU, they are stuck between UU and Rarelyused.
Rarelyused (RU) is sometimes also called Littleused (LU), though they are the same tier. RU Pokémon aren't used enough to make it into UU. Like in the case of other tier decay, RU Pokémon, if not used enough, will drop a tier into Neverused.
Borderline 3, like the other Borderline tiers, describes Pokémon that don't quite fit into one tier. These Pokémon are too powerful to be used in Neverused, but not used enough to make into RU.
Neverused (NU) might sound negative, but it just describes how much the Pokémon species is used in competitive battle; which, in this case, isn't a lot. Some lower evolutions of Pokémon fall into NU, but ascend tiers after they evolve.
Little Cup is a bit of an odd tier, as it doesn't fit the rest of the tier system. It describes the use of the first form of a Pokémon that does evolve-- and bans Pokémon like Luvdisc, which don't evolve-- in a competitive environment where all competitive battlers are at Level 5 or under. Sonic Boom and Dragon Rage are typically banned in Little Cup, and in certain lists, some first-stage Pokémon may be considered too powerful for Little Cup (like Meditite, Scyther, and Gligar).
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