Editing Top-level domain (section)

{{short description|Domain at the highest level of the DNS hierarchy}}
{{Redirect2|TLD|TLDN|other uses|TLD (disambiguation)}}
{{for|a list of all top-level domains|List of Internet top-level domains}}
{{See also|Country code top-level domain}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Internet history timeline}}

A '''top-level domain''' ('''TLD''') is one of the [[domain name|domains]] at the highest level in the hierarchical [[Domain Name System]] of the [[Internet]] after the root domain.<ref name="rfc1591_2011">{{cite journal |title=Domain Name System Structure and Delegation |last=Postel |first=Jon |author-link=Jon Postel |website=Request for Comments |publisher=Network Working Group | doi=10.17487/RFC1591 |date=March 1994 |url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1591 |access-date=7 February 2011 |quote=This memo provides some information on the structure of the names in the Domain Name System (DNS), specifically the top-level domain names; and on the administration of domains.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The top-level domain names are installed in the [[DNS root zone|root zone]] of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the [[domain name]], that is, the last non-empty label of a [[fully qualified domain name]]. For example, in the domain name [[example.com|www.example.com]], the top-level domain is [[.com]]. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the [[ICANN]], an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the [[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the [[DNS root zone]].