Bitrates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The rates at which bits of data are transmitted or processed in a given time, commonly used to measure digital audio and video quality ; the speed at which digital information flows in streaming or downloading contexts ; quantities indicating the amount of data handled per second in communication or storage systems
2. Measurements describing the data transfer speed in bits per second for digital media ; numerical values signaling how quickly bits are compressed or transmitted in communication technology ; indicators of digital file quality based on data flow rates during encoding or playback
3. Quantifications of digital data flow measured in bits per second, reflecting media fidelity and network performance ; parameters defining the frequency of bits sent or received over digital connections ; figures used to represent the speed of bit transmission in encoding, streaming, or storage operations

Etymology: "Bitrates" is the plural of "bitrate", a noun meaning the speed at which data is transferred. The form is built from two ordinary English words: "bit", the basic unit of digital information (a single binary digit, zero or one), and "rate", a measure of how much of something happens per unit of time. Put together, the compound describes how many bits move through a channel each second. A connection running at a higher bitrate carries more data in the same time, which is why the term appears wherever data is streamed, stored or sent, from audio and video files to network speeds. Because the plural simply counts several such measurements, "bitrates" is used when comparing different speeds, such as the bitrates offered by different streaming qualities.

Synonyms: data rates, transfer rates, bandwidths, speeds, throughputs

Antonyms: latencies, delays, lags, interruptions, downtimes