* dot or " ." : The top of the hierarchy or root in the Domain Name System (DNS).

* Dropped domain: A previously registered domain name whose registration was allowed to lapse by the original owner, who refused to pay the renewal fee. The domain name returned to the "available" pool of domain names.

* edu (.edu): The top level domain designated for four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities.

* Email Forwarding: A process to redirect your incoming mail to a specific mailbox. For example, if you have a number of email addresses, forwarding all your email to a single mailbox makes keeping track of them much easier, as you only need to check one mailbox, rather than checking all of them individually. Consult your ISP for fees.

* EPP: Extensible Provisioning Protocol. EPP is a protocol that permits multiple service providers to perform object provisioning operations using a shared central object repository. EPP is specified using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 and XML Schema notation. EPP meets and exceeds the requirements for a generic registry registrar protocol (as described in RFC 3375). EPP content is identified by MIME media type application/epp+xml. The original motivation for this protocol was to provide a standard Internet domain name registration protocol for use between domain name registrars and domain name registries. The EPP protocol provides a means of interaction between a registrar's applications and registry applications.

* Encrypted Password: A password that has been "scrambled" so that someone who is not intended to use that specific program or system will be denied.

* Encryption: A very high security way to protect information that is sent over the Internet by scrambling the data so that only the person who is designated can read the information.

*Escrow: A third party service that will essentially hold on to the buyer's payment when selling a domain name, thereby protecting both the buyer and seller.

* Expired Domain: A domain that has not been registered by the owner in the grace period allotted eventually becomes expired, or unusable by the owner, and is placed into the pool of available names again.

* Fully Qualified Domain Name: The name of a domain without the host information, e.g. google.com (and not www.google.com).

* Fully Qualified Host Name: The name of the computer hosting your domain name.

* gov (.gov): The top level domain designated for agencies and branches of the United States Federal Government. State and local governments in the United States should use the .us top level country code domain. Prior to October 1, 1997, registration in gov was handled by InterNIC; the General Services Administration (GSA) began handling registration in the top level domain gov starting October 1, 1997.

* gTLD: TLDs can be separated into gTLD and ccTLD. "gTLD" means "generic Top-Level Domain" or sometimes it is referred to as "global Top-Level Domain". Usually, people mean TLDs like .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name etc. by gTLD. That is, endings which cannot be associated with a certain country.

* Hold Status: A domain name that has not been registered by its owner, but not yet in the pool of available names may be said to be on hold status.