reverse proxy
compound.compound. a server that sits in front of other servers to manage traffic and keep them safe. It takes requests from the internet and sends them to the right computer in a private network.
compound. a server that sits between client devices and a backend server, intercepting requests to provide load balancing, security, or caching. It acts as an intermediary for the server rather than the client.
The reverse proxy helps protect our website from hackers.
By using a reverse proxy, the company can distribute incoming web traffic across multiple servers to prevent any single one from crashing.
Implementing a reverse proxy allows administrators to handle SSL encryption at the edge of the network, thereby reducing the computational burden on the internal application servers.
A compound of the adjective reverse and the noun proxy, the latter being a late Middle English contraction of the Anglo-French procuracie. The term was established by the late 1990s to distinguish the configuration from the traditional forward proxy.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly used in the context of web architecture and cybersecurity.
the proxy reversethe reverse proxyIn English compound nouns, the modifier 'reverse' must come before the noun 'proxy'.
Last updated July 22, 2026