What Is ICANN? Domain Glossary

Why it matters

ICANN does not sell domains or control website content. It writes the rules that registries and registrars must follow. Those rules affect sellers directly. Examples are the Transfer Policy, the Expired Registration Recovery Policy and the UDRP dispute process. ICANN also runs the New gTLD Program, which creates new extensions. Think of ICANN as the rule maker, not as a place to complain about a price or a buyer. Knowing which body owns which rule saves time during a dispute or transfer problem.

Source: icann.org

Where we use this term

Related terms

Registry: A registry is the authoritative master database of every domain name registered in one top-level domain. The company that runs it is the registry operator. The Domain Name System consults it to find the name servers for each name.
Registrar: A registrar is a company that sells domain registrations to the public. It checks that a name is available, sends the registration to the registry, collects owner details and lets the owner manage settings afterward.
IANA: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which keeps the public registries of internet identifiers. This includes the root zone database that lists every top-level domain and the organization that manages it.
UDRP: The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, ICANN's rules for resolving trademark-based complaints about domains. A complainant must show three elements, and the usual remedy is transfer or cancellation.
New gTLD Program: The New gTLD Program is ICANN's process for creating new top-level domains. The 2026 round took applications from April 30 to August 12, 2026. ICANN revealed 1,615 applications on October 7, 2026.

All 205 terms

Why it matters

Where we use this term

Buying or selling a domain?