ccTLD

A country-code top-level domain — two letters, assigned per territory (e.g. .de, .uk, .ai for Anguilla, .io for the British Indian Ocean Territory).

Some ccTLDs are used almost entirely outside their country thanks to lucky semantics (.ai, .io, .tv). Their policies and pricing follow the local operator, not ICANN's gTLD rules — an extra diligence step before investing.