A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the  Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:

• country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)
• generic top-level domains (gTLD)
  • sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
  • unsponsored top-level domains
• infrastructure top-level domain (.arpa)