TCP/IP

American

abbreviation

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol: a communications protocol for computer networks, the main protocol for the internet.

TCP/IP Scientific

Short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A suite of protocols for communication between computers, specifying standards for transmitting data over networks and used as the basis for standard Internet protocols.

Etymology

Origin of TCP/IP

First recorded in 1980–85

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.

Without the TCP/IP protocol, for instance, we wouldn’t have the internet.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 6, 2023

You are not talking about replacing SSL or TCP/IP, the transport layer protocols.

From The Verge • Apr. 12, 2022

He couldn't grasp the concept that TCP/IP and the ISO communications model don't have an ethnic identification layer.

From The Guardian • Jun. 25, 2013

The most important part of what we now know of as the Internet is the TCP/IP protocol, which was invented by Vincent Cerf and Robert Kahn.

From Scientific American • Jul. 23, 2012

Each protocol had a different function: TCP/IP was the basic plumbing of the Internet, or the basic railroad tracks, on which everything else above it was built and moved around.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

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