The MIME Type application/msword is used to denote the presence of a Microsoft Word Document or Document Template. The category of this MIME Type is "application".

The MIME type may be used for both Word Document files and Word Document Template files. Word documents denoted by this MIME type carry the extension of DOC. The Microsoft Word Template files carry the extension DOT.

The DOC file extension has been the default for MS Word documents for a long time. It began appearing in the files created by the application ever since the inception. It was the default file type for all the documents created by word up until recently. Since Word 2007, the default has been changed to DOCX where the X denotes the Office Open XML International Standard. It has also been implemented within Word 2008 for Mac.

The DOT extension is used by Word Document Template files. These are template files that define a style within which a document may be created. They define margins, heading styles, colors and even fonts. These files get infected very easily and hence they should be dealt with caution when coming from an external source.