Term: registrar

A domain registry service or registrar is an organization authorized to sell, or more correctly lease, internet domain names.

Registrars are themselves registered with and authorized through ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or one of its international designees.

A registrar’s basic function is to register ownership of an internet domain, and publish that information, as well as indicating which “name servers” are to be used for retrieving information about the domain, such as the IP addresses of any servers hosting that domain or the email associated with it.

It’s very common, though definitely not required, that the registrar also provide the name servers, as well as website parking and/or hosting, email and other services, typically for additional fees.