Top-level domain

A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an Internet domain name. For example, in the domain name wikipedia.org, the top-level domain is org (or ORG, as domain names are not case-sensitive).

Related Topics:
Internet domain name - Org

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The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) currently classifies top-level domains into three types:

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• country code top-level domains (ccTLD): Used by a country or a dependent territory. It is two letters long, for example jp for Japan.
• generic top-level domain (gTLD): Used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organizations (for example, com for commercial organizations). It is three or more letters long. Most gTLDs are available for use worldwide, but for historical reasons gov and mil are restricted to the government and military, respectively, of the USA.
• infrastructure top-level domain: The top-level domain arpa is the only one.

A full list of currently existing TLDs can be found at the list of Internet top-level domains.

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Top-level domain: Historical TLDs ►