What is "netsplit"

n. (context Internet English) A technical glitch encountered when two or more IRC servers lose their connection to each other, dividing the network into a number of isolate groups of users. vb. (context Internet transitive English) To leave an IRC server because of a netsplit.

In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat (IRC), netsplit is the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network or between two nodes. As an IRC network is an undirected acyclic graph, a split between any two nodes splits the entire network into two pieces.