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

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

Peter is the perfect person to help that mission, building on Nielsen’s momentum of big data + panel measurement, live streaming innovation and our AI transformation. —Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025

That’s when the advantages of big data are greatest. —Matthew W. Kreuter, CNN Money, 8 Nov. 2025

That’s when the advantages of big data are greatest. —Matthew W. Kreuter, The Conversation, 7 Nov. 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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