big data

noun

: an accumulation of data that is too large and complex for processing by traditional database management tools

Did you know?

Big data is a new addition to our language, but exactly how new is not an easy matter to determine. A 1980 paper by Charles Tilly provides an early documented use of big data, but Tilly wasn't using the word in the exact same way we use it today; rather, he used the phrase "big-data people" to refer to historians engaged in data-rich fields such as cliometrics. Today, big data can refer to large data sets or to systems and solutions developed to manage such large accumulations of data, as well as for the branch of computing devoted to this development. Francis X. Diebold, a University of Pennsylvania economist, who has written a paper exploring the origin of big data as a term, a phenomenon, and a field of study, believes the term "probably originated in lunch-table conversations at Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in the mid 1990s…."

Examples of big data in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Institutional investors such as hedge funds are applying big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence not only to stocks and bonds, but also to event contracts and sports betting markets. —Karl Lockhart, Chicago Tribune, 11 Aug. 2025

The big data company needs to report 14 cents per share in earnings and $1 billion in revenue. —Jim Cramer, CNBC, 4 Aug. 2025

Using big data for better post-market safety monitoring will generate better information to protect the public and help clinicians make nuanced, informed decisions with their patients. —MSNBC Newsweek, 11 July 2025

The first step of making big data more helpful is to simply link the data—which, while possible, is difficult to accomplish without centralized effort. —Christopher M. Worsham, Time, 9 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for big data

• peseta
• punctata
• beta
• theta
• zeta
• oligochaeta
• polychaeta

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