petabytes of data

USAGE SUMMARY

'petabytes of data' is correct and usable in written English.
You would typically use it when discussing large amounts of digital information, such as in this sentence: "Over the past 10 years, companies have collected petabytes of data about their customers."

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Science

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

Put another way, that's 9 petabytes of data.

The New York Times

The Large Hadron Collider in Cern, for example, produces 15 petabytes of data a year.

The Guardian - Tech

The Square Kilometre Array telescope, for example, generates 915 petabytes of data a day.

The Guardian - Tech

Over a year that makes 15 petabytes of data: enough to fill more than 20 million CDs.

The Guardian

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva generates about 10 petabytes of data annually.

The New York Times - Science

"What matters to us, awash in petabytes of data, is not necessarily having actually consumed this content first-hand but simply knowing that it exists".

The Guardian - Opinion

What makes this possible is use of the National Computing Infrastructure at the Australian National University, which provides the computational grunt to crunch the petabytes of data that the Landsat archives contain.

The Guardian - Tech

The resulting ocean of information is many petabytes of data (one petabyte is a million gigabytes, if you're scoring at home).

The New York Times - Tech

Kaiser Permanente, which has a database of 9 million patients, stores about 30 petabytes of data — more than three times the digitized storage of the Library of Congress.

The New York Times - Health

The prospect of fresh petabytes of data inside Google, where Google has broad license to experiment, may provide renewed scrutiny about what Google does with data.

The New York Times

In contrast to the petabytes of data flotsam, half-truths and speculation that drift daily around the Internet, WikiLeaks spews forth unvarnished, sensitive truths.

The New York Times

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

When discussing the sheer scale of modern data, use “petabytes of data” to convey the vastness of information generated by sources like scientific instruments or large online platforms.

Common error

Avoid mixing units (e.g., terabytes, petabytes, exabytes) without clear context or comparison. Ensure your audience understands the scale difference when using “petabytes of data” relative to other data measurements.

Linguistic Context

The phrase “petabytes of data” functions as a noun phrase and serves as a unit of measurement specifying the amount of digital information. It is commonly used in technical, scientific, and business contexts to quantify substantial data storage capacities or data generation rates, as shown by Ludwig.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

47%

Science

45%

Formal & Business

8%

Less common in

Academia

0%

Encyclopedias

0%

Wiki

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, “petabytes of data” is a grammatically correct and frequently used phrase to describe extremely large quantities of digital information. As Ludwig AI confirms, it is widely accepted across various domains including news, science, and business. Predominantly found in news and scientific contexts, this term helps to convey the scale of data generated by modern technologies and scientific endeavors. When writing, it’s important to maintain consistency with data units and be mindful of the audience's understanding of these large scales.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

massive amounts of data

Replaces the specific unit "petabytes" with a general term for a large quantity.

huge quantities of data

Similar to "massive amounts of data", but emphasizes the abundance of the data.

large volumes of data

Focuses on the sheer volume and scale of the data involved.

extensive data sets

Highlights that data is structured in sets and that they are extensive.

vast data resources

Emphasizes data as a resource that is available on a large scale.

significant data storage

Focuses on the storage aspect of large data quantities.

substantial data reserves

Implies data is stored and available for future use, similar to a reserve.

big data repositories

Highlights the storage locations of the data and uses the popular term "big data".

considerable data holdings

Focuses on the amount of data that an entity possesses or holds.

immense data collections

Stresses the completeness and aggregation of large data quantities.

FAQs

How do I use "petabytes of data" in a sentence?

You can use "petabytes of data" to describe the amount of data that large organizations or scientific experiments generate and manage. For example, "The Large Hadron Collider produces "petabytes of data" annually."

What's the difference between "petabytes of data" and "terabytes of data"?

A petabyte is significantly larger than a terabyte. One petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes, so "petabytes of data" refers to a much larger data quantity.

Are there other ways to describe very large data quantities besides using "petabytes of data"?

Yes, you can also use terms like "massive amounts of data", "large volumes of data", or "huge quantities of data" depending on the context.

Is "petabytes of data" a formal or informal term?

"Petabytes of data" is a technical term that is appropriate for both formal and informal contexts when discussing digital storage and data processing. However, the level of detail needed depends on the audience.