bandwidth.

1. The width of a frequency range used or passed by a signal, system, or channel.

2. The data-transfer capacity of a communications connection, commonly expressed as a rate.

3. The practical capacity to devote attention, time, or effort to something.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• signal bandwidth
• frequency bandwidth

On the page

The filter admitted only a narrow bandwidth.

The signal’s bandwidth exceeded the receiver’s design.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Usually uncountable; bandwidths for distinct ranges. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.