Wideband

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Extending across a broad range of electromagnetic frequencies, especially in radio or signal transmission
2. Spanning a large bandwidth to accommodate many frequency signals simultaneously
3. Characterized by the ability to handle or transmit signals over a wide frequency spectrum

Etymology: "Wideband" is a plain compound of "wide" and "band," with no hidden history behind it. "Band" comes from the sense of a range of frequencies, a usage that dates to the early days of radio, when engineers needed a way to describe a stretch of the spectrum a signal occupied. Attaching "wide" to it produced a term for a system that can carry or process signals across a broad slice of that spectrum, as opposed to a narrow one. The word's usefulness comes from contrast. Engineers speak of narrowband signals, which squeeze information into a small range of frequencies, and wideband signals, which spread it across many. In the wider world, the term is most familiar from audio and telecommunications, where it describes equipment or connections that reproduce or transmit a large range of frequencies.

Synonyms: broadband