bandwidth

[ 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. Digital Technology. the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system; the speed of data transfer:

   a high-bandwidth internet connection.

3. mental capacity; intelligence:

   Don't listen to him—he has really low bandwidth.

4. a person's capacity to handle or think about more than one thing at the same time:

   He doesn't have the bandwidth to make those kinds of decisions.

bandwidth

/ ˈbændˌwɪdθ /

noun

1. the range of frequencies within a given waveband used for a particular transmission
2. the range of frequencies over which a receiver or amplifier should not differ by more than a specified amount
3. the range of frequencies used in a specific telecommunications signal

bandwidth

/ bănd′wĭdth′,-wĭth′ /

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

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

Notes

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 .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of bandwidth¹

First recorded in 1925–30; band ² + width

Example Sentences

Google Chrome this week began rolling out a new feature designed to block ads that use an “egregious” amount of network bandwidth or battery power — an update that has caught some publishers on the back foot.

From Digiday

Since then, states have vastly increased their bandwidth to perform tests, but even now, experts from the Harvard Global Health Institute say daily testing needs to nearly double to help mitigate the pandemic.

From FiveThirtyEight

Human marketers simply don’t have the bandwidth to collect and analyze the massive amount of consumer data being generated across hundreds of touchpoints.

From Search Engine Watch

The pandemic, for instance, could easily take up all the district’s bandwidth.

From Voice of San Diego

Even most high-end VR experiences require 3D models to be optimized, which reduces the number of polygons so that more bandwidth is available for interactivity and other models to load at the same time.

From Singularity Hub 

Users also require the bandwidth and patience to download large files (Flames of War is nearly a gigabyte).

From The Daily Beast

Or alter policies on whether or not they are willing to accept such high bandwidth, as crazy as that might seem.

From The Daily Beast

Since bandwidth has become reasonable, paying extra for it feels like a backwards move.

From The Daily Beast

Changes like this pose a huge threat to the adult entertainment industry—an industry that eats up a ton of bandwidth.

From The Daily Beast

If he doesn't know about content management systems and bandwidth, he'd better learn.

From The Daily Beast

"Intelligent data" dissemination and wide bandwidth communications are examples of essential technologies emerging in this area.

From Project Gutenberg

Many-to-many communication is not just a matter of bandwidth on digital networks, but of self-definition, also.

From Project Gutenberg

In the meanwhile, entertainment took over almost all available bandwidth.

From Project Gutenberg