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List of Internet top-level domains

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ318153
Source-derived summary

This list of Internet top-level domains (TLD) contains top-level domains, which are those domains in the DNS root zone of the Domain Name System of the Internet. A list of the top-level domains by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is maintained at the Root Zone Database. IANA also oversees the approval process for new proposed top-level domains for ICANN.

As of February 2026, the IANA root database includes 1593 TLDs. This database also includes 156 that are not assigned (revoked or retired) and 11 test domains, all of which are not represented in IANA's TLD listing nor in the root.zone file (the file also includes one root domain).

Types

IANA distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:

infrastructure top-level domain (ARPA)

generic top-level domains (gTLD)

generic-restricted top-level domains (grTLD)

sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)

country code top-level domains (ccTLD)

test top-level domains (tTLD)

Original top-level domains

Seven generic top-level domains were created early in the development of the Internet, prior to the creation of ICANN in 1998.

Infrastructure top-level domains

Country code top-level domains

As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. As of June 2022, the number was 316, with the addition of internationalized domains.

Proposed internationalized ccTLDs

ICANN-era generic top-level domains

Target market: intended use

Operator: entity the registry has been delegated to

DNSSEC: presence of DS records for Domain Name System Security Extensions

English

Chinese

French

German

Hindi

Italian

Portuguese

Spanish

Internationalized generic top-level domains

All of these TLDs are internationalized domain names (IDN) and support second-level IDNs.

Arabic script

Chinese characters

Cyrillic script

Japanese characters

Other scripts

Geographic top-level domains

Africa

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

Internationalized geographic top-level domains

Brand and corporate top-level domains

Internationalized brand top-level domains

Special-use domains

ICANN/IANA has created some special-use domain names which are meant for technical purposes. ICANN/IANA owns all of the special-use domain names.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “List of Internet top-level domains” as wikimedia list article. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2026, 1593, 1998, 2017—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where List, Internet and top-level can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wikimedia list article. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q318153. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1593, 1998 and 2017.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from List of Internet top-level domains” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.