To host a website on the Internet, you will have to first register the domain. This use to be a very costly affair, it is very cheap now. It can be done for reasonable prices, and almost anyone can afford to register their sites.
It can also be called a host name, as this is what one will refer to when looking for a site. The informal term used for this is web address. This is completely incorrect and has to be referred to as a domain. This is what a website owner will use to replace his IP address, since most people aren’t going to remember such numbers.
Different domains are used for various sites, because when one user moves from one to the other, it makes it easier for him. A domain name is allowed to have many IP addresses, and vice versa. You actually do not have to follow any of the industry jargon unless you want to explore further into this field. There will be many restrictions about how you can use the domain names as well.
Certain types of characters are not allowed to be part of the domain name. There are numerous types of domains as well. There are the top-level domains, second level and many more.
Source: EzineArticles