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
Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 26 Nov. 2025
The country also benefits from strengths in autonomous technologies, big data, and electric vehicle manufacturing.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Nov. 2025
Getting financing for big data center buildouts is starting to become more complicated and slightly riskier, even as the companies continue to deliver solid finances and steady cash flow.
—Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 13 Nov. 2025
That’s when the advantages of big data are greatest.
—Matthew W. Kreuter, CNN Money, 8 Nov. 2025
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 4 Dec. 2025.
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