ARPANET

or AR·PA·net

[ ahr-puh-net ]

noun

, Computers.

1. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network: a network of computers, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s, that pioneered data transfer in packets and the Internet Protocol; a precursor to the internet.

ARPANET

/ är′pə-nĕt /

1. A computer network developed by the Advanced Research Project Agency (now the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) in the 1960s and 1970s as a means of communication between research laboratories and universities. ARPANET was the predecessor to the Internet.

Arpanet

1. An acronym for A dvanced R esearch P roject A gency Net work. An early communications network developed by the Department of Defense in the late 1960s. It connected high-tech research institutions and the military.

Spelling Note

See internet.

Notes

Arpanet is often spoken of as a precursor of the Internet .

Creating a communications system that could survive a nuclear war was a major impetus behind the development of this system.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ARPANET¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Dr. Mills was among the inner circle of computer scientists who in the 1960s through the ’90s developed Arpanet, a relatively small network of linked computers located at academic and research institutions, and then its globe-spanning successor, the internet.

From New York Times

There, he worked with Al Gore, then a senator, to craft legislation to make the military’s computer network, Arpanet, available to civilian researchers through the foundation’s NSFnet.

From New York Times

The Arpanet transmitted information among about 20 academic and corporate labs across the country.

From New York Times

Kleinrock is in a strong position to know: His pioneering work in the 1970s in developing packet switching, a process through which data is transmitted across digital networks in so-called "packets," was critical in developing ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

From Salon

It resembles the investments government made in the 1960s to develop ARPANET, the first, rough version of the Internet, and, later, the Global Positioning System.

From Washington Post