What does the acronym "HTTP" stand for?

Concept: Networking acronyms for internet protocols are expanded letter-by-letter into their official technical name, as fixed by the standards body (IETF) that defines the protocol. For a client-server web protocol, the expansion names (1) what kind of content it moves and (2) what action it performs on that content.

Application: Expand each letter of "HTTP" against the official specification (IETF RFC 9110, "HTTP Semantics"): H and the first T together stand for "HyperText" (linked, non-linear documents such as web pages), while the second T and P together stand for "Transfer Protocol" (the rules for moving that content between a client and a server). Put together in the defined order: HyperText Transfer Protocol.

• "HyperText Transmission Protocol" swaps in "Transmission," a generic word for moving signals over a medium (used for cables, radio, etc.); it is not the term the specification uses for this protocol's request-response action, so it does not match the official name.

• "High-Tech Text Protocol" reinterprets the first "H" as "High-Tech" instead of "HyperText" and drops the "Transfer" concept entirely; it is not an expansion the specification recognizes at all.

• "HyperTransfer Text Protocol" keeps the right words but reorders them, merging "Hyper" with "Transfer" and separating out "Text"; the letter order H-T-T-P does not map onto this rearranged phrase.

Result: HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.