means A system of interconnected things — computers, people, roads, neurons — linked so they can share information, resources, or influence.

from A plain compound from "net" and "work," first meaning literally what it says: work made of nets — netting, the mesh of knotted thread fishermen and lace-makers produced. "Net" traces back to Old English "net" (a mesh for catching), with cousins across the Germanic languages. By the 19th century the image of crossing, knotted lines stretched outward to anything woven together — rivers, railways, then telegraph and broadcast lines, and eventually the wired and wireless machines of today. The metaphor never changed: lots of strands, lots of crossings, one fabric.