TCP/IP

American  

abbreviation

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

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TCP/IP Scientific  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of TCP/IP

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

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

From Seattle Times • Jun. 6, 2023

It is more helpful to describe it similarly to defining the internet as TCP/IP, the internet protocol suite.

From The Verge • Jul. 19, 2022

Perhaps someday, every single person on the planet might use that standard to map their social connections, just as every single person on the internet uses TCP/IP to share data.

From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2018

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