A top-level domain (TLD), sometimes referred to as a top-level domain name (TLDN), is the last part of an Internet domain name; that is, the letters that follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is com (or COM, as domain names are not case-sensitive). Management of most top-level domains is delegated to responsible parties or organizations by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.
IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:
In addition, a group of internationalized domain name (IDN) top-level domains has been installed for testing purposes.
