What does |-5| mean?

It means how far is -5 from zero on  the number line.

What do you think that the answer is?

This is known as the "absolute value"...it represents the distance on the number line from 0 to the number in the absolute value bars.....in this case, the distance from 0 to -5 is just 5. And since distance is always ≥ 0, then absolute value is always ≥ 0....

Sorry, Melody....I kinda' spilled the beans already........

This means how many spaces from zero it is and the answer would be 5 since it is 5 units from 0.

That is ok Chris - we were probably answering at the same time :)