English

Noun

dotted decimal ‎(uncountable)

1. A method of writing IP addresses with where value of each byte is given as a decimal number, and each byte separated by a dot.

   127.0.0.1 is the dotted decimal representation of the binary value 01111111000000000000000000000001 which is the address your computer uses to refer to itself.

Usage notes

Although this format could be used to represent any number, it is rarely used except for IPv4 addresses, for which it is the defacto representation.