- The definition of a socket is an opening into which something is specially-designed to fit.
An example of a socket is the hole in the wall into which a plug goes.
Origin of socketMiddle English soket, spearhead shaped like a plowshare ; from Anglo-French diminutive ; from Old French soc, plowshare ; from Gaulish an unverified form soccus, plowshare, origin, originally , pig's snout (hence, that which roots out) ; from Indo-European an unverified form suk-, variant, variety of base an unverified form su-, sow
- An opening or a cavity into which an inserted part is designed to fit: a light-bulb socket.
- Anatomy a. The concave part of a joint that receives the end of a bone.b. A hollow or concavity into which a part, such as the eye, fits.
transitive verbsock·et·ed, sock·et·ing, sock·ets
Origin of socketMiddle English soket, from Anglo-Norman, spearhead, diminutive of soc, plowshare, probably of Celtic origin; see sū- in Indo-European roots.
- (mechanics) An opening into which a plug or other connecting part is designed to fit (e.g. a light bulb socket).
- (anatomy) A hollow into a bone which a part fits, such as an eye, or another bone, in the case of a joint.
- (computing) A two-way named pipe on Unix and Unix-like systems, used for interprocess communication.
(third-person singular simple present sockets, present participle socketing, simple past and past participle socketed)
- To place or fit in a socket.
socket - Computer Definition
- An operating system (OS) abstraction that permits application programs to access communications protocols automatically. Bolt Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies) developed the concept in conjunction with the company's early work on TCP/IP. See also application, OS, program, protocol, and TCP/IP.
- Comprising a node address and a port number, a socket is an identifier for a service on a node. In combination a socket on an originating node and a socket on a destination node establish an application session. An Internet Protocol (IP) addressable client and server, for example, might engage in an e-mail transfer using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which is well-known port 25. See also application, client, IP, node, port, server, session, SMTP, SOCKS, and well-known port.
Is roughly analogous to a port and is a communication endpoint for a TCP or UDP connection. One process is said to open a socket to listen for incoming connections, and a second process connects to a socket to establish a communication session.
Sockets can also be used for interprocess communication on a single computer, and multiple sockets can be made to communicate with one another. Sockets are bidirectional, which means that both sides of the connection can send and receive information.
See Also: Port and Port Numbers; TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
About, Inc. Socket. [Online, 2004.] About, Inc. Website. http://compnet working.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-socket.htm.