A root name server (also root server) is a DNS server that answers requests for the DNS root zone, and redirects requests for a particular top-level domain (TLD) to that TLD's name servers. Although any local implementation of DNS can implement its own private root name servers, the term "root name server" is generally used to describe the thirteen well-known root name servers that implement the root namespace domain for the Internet's official global implementation of the Domain Name System. The current 13 root name servers are specified in Table 1.