anternet
UK/ˈæntəˌnɛt/US/ˈæn(t)ɚˌnɛt/
anternet noun: 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.
Noun
anternet (plural not attested)
- 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.
- Long before researchers invented the Internet, ants invented something kind of like an anternet, and the two networks work pretty much the same way.2012, The Ant Internet, IEEE Spectrum
- She and Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and of computer science, last year published a paper showing that the ants' "anternet" algorithm follows the same rules as the protocols that regulate data traffic congestion on the Internet.2013, Stanford course explores social networking in the 18th century – and in nature, Stanford News
Origin of anternet
Blend of ant + internet. Coined by Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University.
Questions about anternet
- What does anternet mean?
- Anternet means 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.
- What part of speech is anternet?
- Anternet is a noun.
- How do you pronounce anternet?
- Anternet is pronounced /ˈæntəˌnɛt/ (UK).
Words near anternet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: anternet (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “anternet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anternet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.