bandwidth

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

bandwidth
    n 1: a data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information
         (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

bandwidth \band"width`\ n.
   The maximum rate of information transfer (measured in
   bits/second) that can be carried by a communication channel.
   "The bandwidth of an analog telephone line is less than 100
   kilobits per second."
   [WordNet 1.5]

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

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}; see also {brainwidth}. 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.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

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?]

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2001-04-24)