database

or da·ta-base, da·ta base

[ dey-tuh-beys ]

noun

1. a comprehensive collection of related data datum organized for convenient access, generally in a computer.
2. data bank.

database

/ ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs /

noun

1. a systematized collection of data that can be accessed immediately and manipulated by a data-processing system for a specific purpose
2. informal.
   any large store of information

   a database of knowledge

database

/ dā′tə-bās′,dăt′ə- /

1. A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval by a computer.

database

1. A set of data grouped together in one location in (or accessible by) a computer . A computerized database has been likened to an electronic filing cabinet of information arranged for easy access or for a specific purpose.

Word History and Origins

Origin of database¹

First recorded in 1965–70; data + base ¹

Example Sentences

Kim, for instance, used the database, among others, to understand why models have a hard time capturing the MJO’s march across the Maritime Continent.

From Science News

To identify suspects, the FBI and police compare images from surveillance cameras and other sources to photo databases.

From Nautilus

The relationship between female education and fertility is long established, but our estimates are also based on our own very large global analysis using the Global Burden of Disease database.

From Nautilus

Clearview AI has built one of the most comprehensive databases of people’s faces in the world.

From MIT Technology Review

A University of Chicago team recently released Fawkes, a tool meant to “cloak” faces by slightly altering your photos on social media so as to fool the AI systems relying on scraped databases of billions of such pictures.

From MIT Technology Review

But after winning 55 percent of the white vote, Duke had a database of supporters some politicians coveted.

From The Daily Beast

They have amassed a growing database of information on some 105,000 POWs.

From The Daily Beast

The hitch was that the genetic profile has to be removed from the database if the person is exonerated.

From The Daily Beast

He went through his entire database of over 70,000 images to select pieces for the Arizona show.

From The Daily Beast

In other words, the fact of maintaining a global database in a secured way.

From The Daily Beast

For those still captive to literacy, the alternative is the ubiquitous word-processed letter matched to a list in a database.

From Project Gutenberg

These resources have their specific epistemological condition-a printed encyclopedia is different from a database.

From Project Gutenberg