dot-coms

Cultural  

1. Colloquial name given to start-up companies that sell goods and services over the Internet. Dot-coms proliferated in the 1990s, but many failed by early 2000. The name comes from the “.com” ending of the Internet address of such companies.

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Example Sentences

It’s also unoriginal: Pundits have overlaid charts showing recent gains for the Magnificent Seven with dot-coms, the Roaring ’20s, railroad fever, Japanese property and tulip bulbs.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

“All this suggests that for AI companies, unlike dot-coms, the marginal cost of sales is relatively high, and the potential profit margin correspondingly thin,” Gave writes.

From Barron's • Nov. 21, 2025

And among dot-coms, it pretty much stood alone.

From MarketWatch • Oct. 31, 2025

At the turn of the century, people were trying to make it big investing in money-losing dot-coms.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 19, 2022

In the 1990s, dot-coms changed the nature of business for good.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2021