Gigabitrate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The rate at which data is transmitted or processed measured in billions of bits per second ; a speed metric commonly used for digital communication or media streaming ; an indicator of data flow capacity at the gigabit scale
2. A measurement expressing how many billions of bits are sent or received per second ; a term describing the bandwidth or throughput of digital networks or devices at high speed ; a quantifier of the volume of digital information transferred each second in gigabit units
3. The quantity of digital information passing through a system in billions of bits every second ; used to denote extremely fast data transfer rates in telecommunications or computing ; a standard unit for evaluating network or media transfer speeds at the gigabit level

Etymology: "Gigabitrate" is a transparent compound: "gigabit" joined to "rate," meaning the number of gigabits (billions of bits) transferred per unit of time. The "rate" half comes from Latin "rata," short for "rata pars," a "fixed portion," which entered English through Anglo-French and Middle English and came to mean a proportion or measured speed. The "giga-" element is a metric prefix from Greek "gigas," meaning "giant," and it denotes a factor of a billion. "Bit," a contraction of "binary digit," is the basic unit of digital information, and the compound follows the usual pattern of prefix plus unit plus rate, as in "megabit rate" or "kilobit rate."

Synonyms: high bitrate, high data rate