country code

networking, standard Originally, a two-letter abbreviation

for a particular country, generally used as a top-leveldomain.

Originally, as the name implies, country codes were meant just

for countries; but over time, country codes were allocated for

many areas (mostly islands) that aren't countries -- such as

Antarctica (aq), Christmas Island (cx) and Saint Pierre et

Miquelon (pm).

Country codes are based on ISO 3166 and are used as the top

level domain for Internet hostnames in most countries but

hardly ever in the USA (code "us").

Latest list .

(2003-05-02)