Internet Governance Glossary
2
2.31 Country code top-level-domain / ccTLD
top-level-domain (TLD) which designates a specific country or special area of geographical interest, such as .uk (United Kingdom), .cn (China), .in (India).
Note:
ccTLD are managed according to the international standard ISO 3166 (multipart) “Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions”. Some ccTLD are still managed by a variety of institutions or individuals that received accreditation in the early days of the Internet, when some governments were not all that interested in such matters.