# What all could ".com" stand for?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 7, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713 "2013-05-07T16:23:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713/1 "2013-05-07T16:23:09Z")

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If it’s not “commercial” or “commerce” what might it be?

communist  
compact  
commander  
complete  
communicable  
complex

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**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713/2 "2013-05-07T16:24:27Z")

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I always assumed it stood for “Computer” but I’m sure that’s not right.

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**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713/3 "2013-05-07T16:29:43Z")

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It’s “commercial.”

ETA: Though not all .com sites are commercial now. But that was the original derivation.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-all-could-com-stand-for/657713/4 "2013-05-07T16:33:11Z")

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Back on the old days, among domains available to anyone, there were “.com” for commercial organizations, “.net” for network providers, and “.org” for non-commercial organizations. Somehow the distinction between them was lost early on, and commercial organizations were able to register names in the .net and .org domains, and vice versa. I wonder whether this started because some commercial organizations were also network providers?

(The other three-letter top-level domains were restricted: .mil for US military, .edu for US educational, .gov for US government, .int for international organizations. The two-letter country-specific top-level domains like .ca for Canada were a completely-separate set.)