What Is A TLD?

Date First Published: 16th January 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Topic: Network Identifiers

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 5/10

CONTENTS

gTLDs
sTLDs
ccTLDs

A TLD is short for a top-level domain and it is the extension that appears at the end of the domain name after the dot, such as com, net, org, biz, etc. For example, the TLD of example.com is com. TLDs are the last part of domain names and the most common TLD is com, with over 137 million com TLDs registered. There are three types of TLDs, which are known as gTLDs (generic top-level domains), sTLDs (sponsored top-level domains), and ccTLDs (country code top-level domains). These are explained below with their meaning.

gTLDs

gTLDs are short for generic top-level domains and these are the most commonly used domain names, since it is possible for anyone to register them and there are no restrictions on who can register them. This is not a full list of every TLD. A full list can be seen here. Examples include:

com - Most popular gTLD - means commercial business.
org - organisation.
net - network.
xyz - represents the generation x, y, and z.
info - informational domain.
biz - business.
online - exactly what it says, a domain online. This is a newer TLD that was released in 2015.
club - to bring people that have common interests together.
live - fresh, relevant content and latest technology.

sTLDs

sTLDs are short for sponsored top-level domains and they are domains that are sponsored by someone, such as a government or a business. These domains have restrictions on who can register them as these require that the registrant is a private agency or an organisation before they can register them. Examples include:

gov - Local governments.
edu - Education.
museum - Reserved exclusively for museums and members of the museum profession.
jobs - Human resource managers.
tel - Publication of contact data by businesses and people.
int - Reserved for global treaty-based organisations.
aero - Reserved for members of the air transport industry.
travel - Reserved for travel agents.
coop - Reserved for cooperative associations.

ccTLDs

ccTLDs are short for country code top-level domains and they are domains that have restrictions on who can register them as some may require that the registrant is a resident of the country before they can register them. Examples include: