API

American

abbreviation

American Petroleum Institute. Also A.P.I.
Computers. application programming (or program) interface: a set of protocols used by programmers to create applications for a specific operating system or to interface between the different modules of an application.

API British

abbreviation

application programming interface

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

While the API has a meeting every March, this time they will discuss the role of American oil and natural gas in supporting reliable energy supply amid global volatility.

From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026

That’s led to security concerns, as cybersecurity company Wiz identified a database misconfiguration in early February that left 1.5 million API authentication tokens, 35,000 email addresses and private messages between agents exposed.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 10, 2026

According to Anthropic, the three Chinese labs generated more than 16 million exchanges with Claude through unauthorized third-party API resellers.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 28, 2026

Data from expense-management startup Ramp shows that Anthropic in January dominated so-called API spending, which occurs when users access an AI model through a third-party service.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026

This is a glimpse of the API at work in the game.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023