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
Time Contributors, Time, 29 Apr. 2026
However, new research methods such as consumer neuroscience and consumer big data analysis, including mobile devices sensor analysis, are providing new data and insights on how consumers make decisions in the different audiovisual markets.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Apr. 2026
Powell has bristled at Warsh’s critiques Warsh has also called for the Fed to use new models, a potential reference to bringing new technologies and big data into the Fed’s forecasting process.
—Steve Liesman,matt Peterson, CNBC, 20 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.
—Anne D’innocenzio, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Big data.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/big%20data. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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