From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
bandwidth
n : 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 [gcide]:
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 The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
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)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
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.