big data
noun
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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
Jack Kelly, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025
This shift aligns with the growing demand for high-performance computing power across industries like AI, blockchain and big data.
—Jessica Billingsley, Rolling Stone, 2 Jan. 2025
On the leaderboards, Palantir Technologies, a software company that specializes in AI and big data analysis, has surged 360%, overtaking AI chip industry leader Nvidia, last year’s top performer, which gained 175% in 2024.
—Benzinga, Detroit Free Press, 28 Dec. 2024
This complexity necessitates partnerships with tech companies that specialize in areas such as computer vision, the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytics.
—Amaan Kazi, Forbes, 10 Dec. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near big data
Cite this Entry
“Big data.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/big%20data. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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