batch processing

American  

noun

Computers.

1. a form of data processing in which a number of input jobs are grouped for processing during the same machine run.

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batch processing British  

noun

1. manufacturing products or treating materials in batches, by passing the output of one process to subsequent processes Compare continuous processing

2. a system by which the computer programs of a number of individual users are submitted to the computer as a single batch Compare time sharing

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Etymology

Origin of batch processing

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Cornell was an early adopter of mainframes and his professor mentors were moving from punch cards to mainframe batch processing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

In addition, their batch processing technique could be implemented at scale, which would significantly lower the cost of each emitter and go a long way toward making a point-of-care mass spectrometer an affordable reality.

From Science Daily • Apr. 4, 2024

With batch processing, you could make a large stack of cards which contained 20 or 30 or 50 programs, and leave it to an operator to process them all and run them overnight.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2011

When we were doing batch processing, the concept of e-mail is something that you couldn’t imagine.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2011

This process, known as " batch processing," was cumbersome and time consuming.

From Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Williams, Sam