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ARPANET

acronym from Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, set up in 1969 by a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense in partnership with four universities; acknowledged as "the world's first operational packet switching network" and predecessor of the Internet.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Related Words for arpanet

cyberspace, WWW, ARPANET, hyperspace, infobahn
arpanet in Science

ARPANET

[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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
arpanet in Culture

Arpanet

An acronym for Advanced Research Project Agency Network. An early communications network developed by the Department of Defense in the late 1960s. It connected high-tech research institutions and the military.

Note

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

Note

Arpanet is often spoken of as a precursor of the Internet.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.