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

Many of its foundational bodies, the internet engineering task force that stewards most of TCP/IP, was developed by DOD and then relinquished, but is still strongly influenced by government.

From The Verge • Jul. 19, 2022

If considering the development and adoption of TCP/IP as a landmark for the birth of Internet infrastructure, the 1996 Internet was a 14-year-old teenager.

From Scientific American • Nov. 26, 2013

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

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