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Web Development vocabulary · HTTP and APIs

REST API

Meaning in web development, with examples

nounCommon term

In web development, REST API means: An API built in the REST style, where each resource has its own URL and standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST and DELETE act on it.

In Turkish: REST API, RESTful servis

How it is used

REST stands for Representational State Transfer and is pronounced as one word, 'rest'. People also say 'RESTful API'. GraphQL is a common alternative style.

Example sentences

  1. The mobile app and the website both use the same REST API.

  2. In our REST API, GET /orders lists orders and POST /orders creates a new one.

Common collocations

  • RESTful API
  • REST endpoint
  • design a REST API
  • call a REST API
  • APIApplication Programming Interface: a defined way for one piece of software to ask another for data or actions, for example a web API that returns JSON.
  • endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of data or action, such as /api/users or /api/orders/42.
  • HTTP methodThe word at the start of an HTTP request that says what the client wants to do, such as GET to read, POST to create or DELETE to remove.
  • JSONJavaScript Object Notation: a simple text format for data, made of keys and values in curly braces, used by most web APIs.

More terms: HTTP and APIs

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