ENGLISH
REFERENCE

ipv4

n.
C1 Advanced Networking
Definition

n. Stands for Internet Protocol version 4. The standard system used to give every device on the internet a unique address so they can find each other.

n. Abbreviation for Internet Protocol version 4. The fourth revision of the Internet Protocol used to identify devices on a network through an addressing system, typically expressed as four decimal numbers separated by dots.


SIMPLE

Every computer on the network requires a unique IPv4 address to communicate.

CONTEXTUAL

The technician had to manually configure the IPv4 settings to resolve the local connectivity issue.

COMPLEX

Although IPv4 remains widely used, its limited 32-bit address space has led to the gradual global adoption of IPv6.

Origin

An initialism formed from Internet Protocol version 4. The designation follows the sequence of the Internet Engineering Task Force's development iterations, succeeding the experimental version 3.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Usage

Often used as a modifier before nouns like 'address', 'stack', or 'network'.

Related words

Last updated July 22, 2026