big data
noun
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
Anne D’innocenzio, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2026
Know More Butler recently told Semafor that Exelon is hoping to get back into the power-generation business in an effort to reduce energy prices for consumers as big data centers and other industrial customers increase demand for electricity.
—Pradnya Joshi, semafor.com, 16 Apr. 2026
That means selling access to a huge number of graphics processors, or other specialized AI computer chips designed by companies like Nvidia or AMD, that operate in big data centers typically run by cloud computing giants like Amazon or Oracle.
—ABC News, 15 Apr. 2026
There’s too much big data to ignore women’s needs, and too much big data that shows how powerful women can be.
—Alexa Mikhail, Flow Space, 14 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for big data
Cite this Entry
“Big data.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/big%20data. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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