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

Our own research using big data to study the outcomes of millions of college students over time underscores this point in the United States. —Raj Chetty, Time, 28 Jan. 2026

The technology is well suited for high-performance, energy-efficient tasks such as AI, big data processing and advanced wireless systems. —Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 21 Jan. 2026

After that big data dive, Budapest, Hungary, was named the top spot. —Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 10 Jan. 2026

This reps the first year that Nielsen’s big data + panel ratings were implemented, which now mix both Nielsen panel data from viewers along with set-top box and smart TV datasets. —Michael Schneider, Variety, 29 Dec. 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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