Anternet

//ˈæntəˌnɛt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The means by which ants communicate with each other, analogous to the TCP/IP algorithm that the internet uses to control the flow of data. no-plural

    "Long before researchers invented the Internet, ants invented something kind of like an anternet, and the two networks work pretty much the same way."

Example

More examples

"Long before researchers invented the Internet, ants invented something kind of like an anternet, and the two networks work pretty much the same way."

Etymology

Blend of ant + internet. Coined by Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University.

Related phrases

tcp ip

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.