What is the difference between expired domain and deleted domain?

[Abhinav]

I am a little confused about these concepts, it will be great if someone can explain to me the difference between expired domain and a deleted domain.

[Rebecca]

There can be a huge difference between an expired domain, a deleted domain and a dropped domain and this depends on the registry/registrar as well.

Let me explain with an example...

Let's say a domain 'aaa.com' expires on 30th October, 2014 and the domain owner decides not to extend it further. In this case, after 30th October, 2014 most of the web hosting providers will not just simply delete this domain name for avoiding domain scatting, therefore the last domain owner still has some time in hand to change his mind.

A dropped domain is a domain that is intentionally deleted before the "natural" expiration date.

[Abhinav]

Thanks for explaining that with a good example Rebecca. Before this I had a huge confession on expired domain and deleted domain. At times, I used to think that they are the same.

[Rebecca]

Yes even I thought that they are the same, I did a little research on these two terms to know the difference.