the.com/apis

The invisible handshake that lets your app politely ask another app for favors.

means A set of defined rules and protocols that lets one piece of software request data or services from another, without either needing to know the other's inner workings.

from API stands for 'Application Programming Interface,' a straightforward technical compound coined as computing matured and programs needed formal ways to talk to each other. 'Interface' itself traces back to Latin inter- ('between') plus facies ('face' or 'form') — literally the face a thing presents to the world. So an API is, quite literally, the face one program shows to another.

name origin
Stands for Application Programming Interface, not bees
daily use
Your weather app never checks the sky itself
economy
Entire businesses run on renting access to APIs
etiquette
Rate limits exist because APIs hate being spammed too
the.com · every word