Skip to main content
burstiness

burstiness

7.7
A way of happening in sudden, irregular bursts rather than at a steady rate
  • noun
  • /ˈbɜrstɪnəs/
translation icon : irregularidad
  • The burstiness of the data traffic increased during peak hours, leading to slower internet speeds.

Examples

  • Due to the burstiness in demand for the product, the company struggled to keep up with orders.

  • The burstiness of rainfall in the region causes occasional flooding during the rainy season.

  • This method is more difficult for users to understand, specify, and implement than the previous one, but it allows performance guarantees to be traded off against link efficiency and traffic burstiness.

    Academic text (2000)
  • This algorithm allows a sustained, untagged throughput rate of c/alpha octets per unit, and a burstiness that is controllable (for a given value of c and alpha) through selection of the value of M.

    Academic text (2000)

Synonyms

fits and starts
vsburstiness
  • Informal
5 6.7

Short periods of activity with pauses

is about sudden irregular occurrences rather than short activity pauses
intermittency
vsburstiness
2 9.3

A pattern of something happening sometimes and stopping at other times

is about sudden concentrated peaks rather than general breaks in continuity
spikiness
vsburstiness
  • Specialized
7.4

The quality of having sudden sharp peaks in measurements or signals

focuses on irregular clusters over time rather than single extreme peaks

Antonyms

77 3.2

The state of things or actions being the same and in agreement

19 3.3

Happening often in the same way or at the same times

How Irregular

variability
29 5.7
burstiness
7.7
regularity
19 3.3

Surface Forms

burstiness singular
burstinesses plural

Morphology

burstiness = bursty (transparent) = burst + y + ness

Formed by adding the productive adjective-forming -y to 'burst' (bursty) and then the noun-forming -ness; the resulting meaning is the expected 'quality of being bursty'.

Etymology

The word burstiness comes from the common word burst, which means 'a sudden, short event or increase', and the ending -ness, which means 'the quality of'. So burstiness is the 'quality of happening in sudden bursts instead of at a steady rate', which fits things like internet traffic, heavy rain, or order spikes.