Definitions for Internet
ˈɪn tərˌnɛtInter·net

Princeton's WordNet(3.21 / 15 votes)Rate this definition:

1. internet, net, cyberspacenoun

   a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange

GCIDE(3.69 / 13 votes)Rate this definition:

1. internetnoun

   A large network of numerous computers connected through a number of major nodes of high-speed computers having high-speed communications channels between the major nodes, and numerous minor nodes allowing electronic communication among millions of computers around the world; -- usually referred to as the internet. It is the basis for the World-Wide Web.

Wiktionary(4.00 / 7 votes)Rate this definition:

1. internetnoun

   Any set of computer networks that communicate using the Internet Protocol. (An intranet.)

   Etymology: (1986) Coined by the U.S. Defense Department, shortening of internetwork.

2. internetnoun

   The Internet, the largest global internet.

   Etymology: (1986) Coined by the U.S. Defense Department, shortening of internetwork.

3. internetnoun

   An internet connection, internet connectivity, access to the internet.

   Do you have internet at your place? My internet is down and I want to check my email.

   Etymology: (1986) Coined by the U.S. Defense Department, shortening of internetwork.

4. Internetnoun

   The specific internet consisting of a global network of computers that communicate using Internet Protocol (IP) and that use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to identify the best paths to route those communications.

   Etymology: (1986) Coined by the U.S. Defense Department, shortening of internetwork.

Wikipedia(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Internet

   The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing. The origins of the Internet date back to the development of packet switching and research commissioned by the United States Department of Defense in the 1960s to enable time-sharing of computers. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1970s. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies, and the merger of many networks. The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated a sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to the network. Although the Internet was widely used by academia in the 1980s, commercialization incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life. Most traditional communication media, including telephony, radio, television, paper mail and newspapers are reshaped, redefined, or even bypassed by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as email, Internet telephony, Internet television, online music, digital newspapers, and video streaming websites. Newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging, web feeds and online news aggregators. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking services. Online shopping has grown exponentially for major retailers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, as it enables firms to extend their "brick and mortar" presence to serve a larger market or even sell goods and services entirely online. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. The Internet has no single centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own policies. The overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address (IP address) space and the Domain Name System (DNS), are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise. In November 2006, the Internet was included on USA Today's list of New Seven Wonders.

The New Hacker's Dictionary(4.13 / 8 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Internet

   The mother of all networks. First incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET, a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. Though it has been widely believed that the goal was to develop a network architecture for military command-and-control that could survive disruptions up to and including nuclear war, this is a myth; in fact, ARPANET was conceived from the start as a way to get most economical use out of then-scarce large-computer resources. Robert Herzfeld, who was director of ARPA at the time, has been at some pains to debunk the “survive-a-nuclear-war” myth, but it seems unkillable.As originally imagined, ARPANET's major use would have been to support what is now called remote login and more sophisticated forms of distributed computing, but the infant technology of electronic mail quickly grew to dominate actual usage. Universities, research labs and defense contractors early discovered the Internet's potential as a medium of communication between humans and linked up in steadily increasing numbers, connecting together a quirky mix of academics, techies, hippies, SF fans, hackers, and anarchists. The roots of this lexicon lie in those early years.Over the next quarter-century the Internet evolved in many ways. The typical machine/OS combination moved from DEC PDP-10s and PDP-20s, running TOPS-10 and TOPS-20, to PDP-11s and VAXen and Suns running Unix, and in the 1990s to Unix on Intel microcomputers. The Internet's protocols grew more capable, most notably in the move from NCP/IP to TCP/IP in 1982 and the implementation of Domain Name Service in 1983. It was around this time that people began referring to the collection of interconnected networks with ARPANET at its core as “the Internet”.The ARPANET had a fairly strict set of participation guidelines -- connected institutions had to be involved with a DOD-related research project. By the mid-80s, many of the organizations clamoring to join didn't fit this profile. In 1986, the National Science Foundation built NSFnet to open up access to its five regional supercomputing centers; NSFnet became the backbone of the Internet, replacing the original ARPANET pipes (which were formally shut down in 1990). Between 1990 and late 1994 the pieces of NSFnet were sold to major telecommunications companies until the Internet backbone had gone completely commercial.That year, 1994, was also the year the mainstream culture discovered the Internet. Once again, the killer app was not the anticipated one — rather, what caught the public imagination was the hypertext and multimedia features of the World Wide Web. Subsequently the Internet has seen off its only serious challenger (the OSI protocol stack favored by European telecoms monopolies) and is in the process of absorbing into itself many of the proprietary networks built during the second wave of wide-area networking after 1980. By 1996 it had become a commonplace even in mainstream media to predict that a globally-extended Internet would become the key unifying communications technology of the next century. See also the network.

U.S. National Library of Medicine(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Internet

   A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.

Editors Contribution(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. internet

   A secure and accessible system of computer networks and technologies that connect an infinite number and type of secure computers, laptops, networks, applications, servers, devices and systems throughout the world using accurate and specific standard, secure protocols and enables the secure communication, upload and download of data and information.

   The internet is a international asset and has enabled so many to learn at fasttrack speeds.

   Submitted by MaryC on January 1, 2020  

Matched Categories

1. • Computer Network

Anagrams for Internet »

1. renitent

How to pronounce Internet?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say Internet in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Internet in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Internet in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of Internet in a Sentence

1. James Comey:

   We have a variety of tools that we as a government use to try and deter behavior on the Internet outside of norms, just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean that your government’s not doing something to try and change behavior.

2. Mishi Choudhary:

   A heavy-handed government that wishes to use technology to surveil its own citizens or control the narrative by curtailing their free speech and expression is not interested in using technology for the good but merely to control, in such scenarios comparisons with the Chinese authoritarian internet are natural.

3. Rajan Anandan:

   India is now a video-first internet, video is a massively huge driving force.

4. Raven Baker:

   Unbothered is supposed to be a safe space for black women on the internet. How is that when it's not even a safe space in the workplace ?

5. Bram Cohen:

   We've designed our software with the intention of it being usable by anyone who can use the internet.

Images & Illustrations of Internet

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