Information Centre

There's all sorts of jargon and lingo associated with domain names. Thankfully though, most people won't need to know much of it or this dictionary. However, if you've come across terms you'd like to understand the meaning of or are just generally curious about industry terminology definitions, this glossary may be of assistance.

A record 
This is used to point a domain to a specific IP address.

Administrative contact 
The contact recorded on the name's record who is responsible for the administration of the address.

auDA 
Stands for au Domain Administration, the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au namespace.

auDRP 
au Dispute Resolution Policy - a document that outlines the process for resolving australian domain name disputes. Read the full text of the policy.

ccTLD 
Stands for country code Top Level Domain; e.g. .AU. These extensions, of which there are 255, always have two characters. While most ccTLD's are associated with a country, some nations have relinquished control to other registries and are able to be registered by anyone, anywhere; e.g. .tv (which was associated with the island nation of Tuvalu).

Cybersquatting
The practice of registering a name for the specific purpose of preventing another party from doing so, usually with a goal of either damaging the other party, diverting traffic from that party or selling it to that party for an inflated price. Learn more about cybersquatting.

DNS 
Stands for Domain Name System, which is essentially the internet's address book that translates numbers (IP addresses) into more human-friendly addresses - Learn more about DNS.

Domain Name
A domain name is a sequence of letters and/or numbers/hyphens separated by one or more periods (".") that act as a pointer to a unique numerical internet protocol (IP) address. 

Dropped domain
A domain where the registration, grace and redemption period has expired and the name is again available for anyone else to register.

Expiration 
The date on which the registration period for a name ends. Learn more about expiration processes.

Extension 
The last two or three letters of a domain name after the final "." This signifies the registry (and sometimes the country - see ccTLD above) it is associated with.

Flipping 
The practice of registering a domain and then quickly selling it quickly for a profit. This may involve developing a basic site first, or just selling it as is.

Front-running 
The banned practice of a registrar using sensitive information such as searches to determine what names to register, with view to reselling them at a higher price. Read more about front-running.

Grace period
The period during which a registrant can renew a domain after it has expired before it becomes available to register by others. Learn more about expiry processes.

gTLD 
Stands for generic Top Level Domain - gTLD's include .com, .net, .org

Hijacking 
Another term for cybersquatting (see above)

ICANN 
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN plays a coordination role of the Internet’s naming system.

iDN 
Stands for internationalized Domain name - these are names that contain character/s of a language-specific script.. 

IP Address 
A unique set of numbers identifying a resource on a computer network, including the internet.

ISS
Stands for Information Security Standard (ISS) and is associated with the .AU namespace. Its purpose is to boost security among Australian domain name registrars. Learn more here.

Keyword domain 
A website address consisting of words related to the service or product it represents. While this once lent significant weight to rankings in Google, that is no longer the case. Still, keyword domains can be a good idea due to the relevancy, recognition and resale potential aspect. 

Nameserver 
A web server that acts as a directory for resources such as web sites on that or another server.

Parking 
The practice of pointing a name to a placeholder page, which may also include advertising and/or an invitation to make an offer on the address. Learn more about domain parking.

Propagation window 
The period of time between changes being made to a domain name record and those changes being distributed (propagated) throughout the internet. The propagation window is anything up to 24 hours and is out of the control of the registrar as ISPs update their DNS caches at different times.

Redemption period 
The timeframe after the grace period in which a domain name can still be renewed by a registrant after it has expired (but renewal will usually cost much more).

Registrant 
The person or party with control over a domain name and is listed as such on the name's record.

Registrar 
An acrredited organistion/business that provides domain registration services to the public. Learn more about the difference between a registrar and a reseller.

Registry
The body that controls and manages top level domain (TLD). In Australia's case, that is currently AusRegistry. Registries often don't provide registration services direct to the public (as is the case with AusRegistry).

Renew 
The term associated with extending the registration period of a domain name.

Reseller 
An agent or affiliate of a registrar that provides domain name services.

Reverse domain hijacking 
When the owner of a brand attempts to gain control of name legitimately registered by another party through false claims. Read more about reverse domain hijacking.

Root server 
A name server for the root zone of the internet's Domain Name System (DNS)

Second level domain (2LD)
An extension that is directly below a TLD. An example would be .com.au, which is the second level to .au

Slurl 
A domain name consisting of multiple words with a character sequence that when put together can be interepreted to mean something else - sometimes with embarassing results. More about slurls.

Subdomain 
A separate address under a domain name, e.g. test.example.com

Tasting 
Where a party uses a brief period to test the potential for a domain and then requests a refund on unwanted names (this isn't possible with .au addresses). More about tasting.

Technical contact 
The contact responsible for technical aspect of the control over a website address.

TLD 
Stands for Top Level Domain, examples include .com, .net, .org, .info.

Transfer 
The term used to describe the reassigning of control of a domain name to another party, who then becomes the recognised registrant.

Typo domain 
A mispelled name used to try and capture traffic resulting from a wrong address being typed into a browser. Read more about typo domains.

URL 
Uniform Resource Locator - the address of a specific web page. 

WHOIS 
A query system for determining registrant contact and other details associated with a domain name - try our WHOIS tool. (Note: if you're wanting search for an available name and register it, use our domain name search tool instead).

Zone file 
A file on a server containing mappings between domain names and IP addresses.

We hope you found this dictionary of terminology definitions and jargon-buster useful. In addition to this glossary, we have an extensive online library of guides and advice on our information center page.