VPN

English

Noun

VPN (plural VPNs)

1. (computing) Initialism of virtual private network.
   • 2002 April 8, Irwin Lazar, “Variations on a VPN theme”, in Network World, page 45:

     The disadvantages to roll-your-own are that the company is responsible for managing VPN configurations, and because traffic is transversing the Internet, there are no performance guarantees. Moreover, it typically is difficult to support latency-sensitive traffic, such as voice. However, a roll-your-own approach lets corporations establish a VPN to any site that has access to the Internet.

   • 2018 June 25, Lily Kuo, “China blocks HBO after John Oliver parody of Xi Jinping”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Most Chinese users watch HBO through virtual private networks, or VPNs.

   • 2025 April 17, “Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and EVPN Integration Overview”, in Juniper Networks‎^[2], archived from the original on 1 July 2025:

     When operating on customer MAC (C-MAC) and service MAC (S-MAC) addresses, PBB uses a new backbone MAC (B-MAC) address. The B-MAC address is added at the edge of the PBB network, that is administered by a carrier VPN or a carrier-of-carriers VPN.

2. (computing) Initialism of virtual page number.

Translations

virtual private network

• French: VPN (fr) m (excluding Canada), RPV (fr) m (Canada), vépéenne (fr) m
• German: VPN (de) n or f
• Japanese: ブイピーエヌ (bui-pī-enu), VPN (ja) (VPN)
• Korean: 브이피엔 (beu'ipien)
• Persian: وی‌پی‌ان (vi-pi-en), فیلترشکن (filteršekan)
• Portuguese: VPN m or f
• Russian: ВПН (VPN), ви-пи-эн (vi-pi-en)

See also

• PPTP
• L2TP

Proper noun

VPN

1. (military, nautical) Initialism of Vietnam People's Navy.

   Synonym: HQNDVN

   Coordinate term: HQVNCH

   Coordinate term: RVNN

Anagrams

• NPV, NVP, PNV, PVN

Japanese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English VPN.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bɯ̟ipʲiːe̞nɯ̟]

Noun

VPN(ブイピーエヌ) • (bui-pī-enu) 

1. (computing) virtual private network

References

• “VPN”, in デジタル大辞泉 [Digital Daijisen]‎^[3] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
• “VPN” in Weblio Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English VPN.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌveˌpeˈẽ.ni/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌveˌpeˈɛ.nɨ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌveˌpeˈɛ.nɨ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌbeˌpeˈɛ.nɨ/

Noun

VPN m or f (plural VPNs)

1. (computing) VPN (“virtual private network”)

Usage notes

• The gender of this Portuguese noun varies from speaker to speaker. Some use it as a masculine noun and others as a feminine noun.