Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
bandwidth - 7 dictionary results

band⋅width

[band-width, -with]
–noun
1. Telecommunications. the smallest range of frequencies constituting a band, within which a particular signal can be transmitted without distortion.
2. the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system; the speed of data transfer: a high-bandwidth Internet connection.

Origin:
1925–30; band 2 + width
band·width   (bānd'wĭdth', -wĭth')   
n.  
  1. The numerical difference between the upper and lower frequencies of a band of electromagnetic radiation, especially an assigned range of radio frequencies.
  2. The amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time.

bandwidth

The amount of data that can be carried by a digital communication medium, often expressed in hertz.

Note: Within the radio and microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum limited bandwidth is available, and in the United States the use of the spectrum is regulated and allocated by the FCC. (See VHF and UHF.)

bandwidth

n.
1. [common] Used by hackers (in a generalization of its technical meaning) as the volume of information per unit time that a computer, person, or transmission medium can handle. "Those are amazing graphics, but I missed some of the detail -- not enough bandwidth, I guess." Compare low-bandwidth. This generalized usage began to go mainstream after the Internet population explosion of 1993-1994.
2. Attention span.
3. On Usenet, a measure of network capacity that is often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others are a waste of bandwidth.

Bandwidth

The data transfer capacity of a network. It is measured in bits per second.

Investopedia Commentary

If your Internet connection is slower than a three-toed sloth, it's probably because of a lack of bandwidth.

Related Links

Investment Scams Tutorial

See also: ADSL, Broadband, Internet Service Provider - ISP, MP3

bandwidth   (bānd'wĭdth', -wĭth')  Pronunciation Key 
  1. The numerical difference between the upper and lower frequencies of a band of electromagnetic radiation, especially an assigned range of radio frequencies.
  2. The amount of data that can be passed along a communications channel in a given period of time. For analog devices, such as standard telephones, bandwith is the range of frequencies that can be transmitted and is expressed in hertz (cycles per second). For digital devices, bandwidth is measured in bits per second. The wider the bandwidth, the faster data can be sent.

bandwidth communications
The difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel (the width of its allocated band of frequencies).
The term is often used erroneously to mean data rate or capacity - the amount of data that is, or can be, sent through a given communications circuit per second.
[How is data capacity related to bandwidth?]
[The Jargon File]
(2001-04-24)

Search another word or see bandwidth on Thesaurus | Reference