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• ARPANET
  ARPANET

  noun

  Advanced Research Projects Agency Network: a network of computers, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s, that pioneered data transfer in packets and the Internet Protocol; a precursor to the internet.
• Arpanet
  Arpanet

  An acronym for A dvanced R esearch P roject A gency Net work. An early communications network developed by the Department of Defense in the late 1960s. It connected high-tech research institutions and the military.

ARPANET

American  

[ahr-puh-net] / ˈɑr pəˌnɛt /

Or ARPAnet

noun

Computers.

1. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network: a network of computers, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s, that pioneered data transfer in packets and the Internet Protocol; a precursor to the internet.

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ARPANET Scientific  

/ är′pə-nĕt /

1. A computer network developed by the Advanced Research Project Agency (now the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) in the 1960s and 1970s as a means of communication between research laboratories and universities. ARPANET was the predecessor to the Internet.

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Arpanet Cultural  

1. An acronym for A dvanced R esearch P roject A gency Net work. An early communications network developed by the Department of Defense in the late 1960s. It connected high-tech research institutions and the military.

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See internet.

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Arpanet is often spoken of as a precursor of the Internet.

Creating a communications system that could survive a nuclear war was a major impetus behind the development of this system.

Etymology

Origin of ARPANET

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ARPANET Arpanet

In creating ARPANET, researchers developed many of the technologies that over the next few decades formed the basis for the internet we know today.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Future generations may look back on this moment the way we look nostalgically at ARPANET, a pure infant version of the internet, its vast potential yet to be recognized and commercialized.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 3, 2021

ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet, was funded by the Defense Department.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2021

The Americans, “Arapanet”: In this second season episode of the acclaimed series, a deep cover Russian operative attempts to gain access to Internet precursor ARPANET.

From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2016

The American Pentagon established the network of all networks, the ARPANET.

From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin

Famously, Bell Labs managers didn’t see value in the Arpanet, which eventually led to today’s internet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026

The Arpanet transmitted information among about 20 academic and corporate labs across the country.

From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2023

Shortly after that came Arpanet, not a dystopian AI system, but the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 13, 2018

In 1969, Heart led a small team of talented young engineers to build the Interface Message Processor, or IMP, a computer whose special function was to switch data among the computers on the Arpanet.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 29, 2018

He noted the difficulty of anticipating the effects of orders-of-magnitude growth, reflecting on the twenty years of experience with the Arpanet and Internet.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress