.NET Framework - technical definition

The infrastructure of the .NET platform from Microsoft. It includes the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and .NET Framework class library. The CLR provides the environment for running .NET applications, and the class library provides the foundation services, including ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows Forms (for building GUIs) as well as classes for accessing COM services. See CLR, .NET and .NET Framework 3.0.

See .NET Framework.