mainframe
noun
main·frame
ˈmān-ˌfrām 
1
: a large, powerful computer that can handle many tasks concurrently and is usually used commercially
… the million-dollar mainframe computers that took up entire floors of corporate premises …—
John Derbyshire
John Derbyshire2
dated
: a computer with its cabinet and internal circuits especially when considered separately from any peripherals connected to the computer
Examples of mainframe in a Sentence
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Housed on a top-secret mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy.
—Vittoria Elliott, WIRED, 4 Feb. 2025
Just as the cost of computer processing has plummeted since the first mainframes — with smartphones now packing more computing power than the machines that sent astronauts to the moon — there has always been reason to believe AI’s massive energy appetite would come down.
—Jackie Snow, Quartz, 3 Feb. 2025
When Grove first became president of Intel, its primary business was selling memory chips used mostly in corporate mainframe computers.
—Chris Miller, Foreign Affairs, 19 Oct. 2022
But Google finds itself in a position like that of IBM in the early 1980s, when IBM’s core mainframe business was threatened by what were then called microcomputers.
—John Rennie, IEEE Spectrum, 31 May 2011
See All Example Sentences for mainframe
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Vittoria Elliott, WIRED, 4 Feb. 2025
Just as the cost of computer processing has plummeted since the first mainframes — with smartphones now packing more computing power than the machines that sent astronauts to the moon — there has always been reason to believe AI’s massive energy appetite would come down.
—Jackie Snow, Quartz, 3 Feb. 2025
When Grove first became president of Intel, its primary business was selling memory chips used mostly in corporate mainframe computers.
—Chris Miller, Foreign Affairs, 19 Oct. 2022
But Google finds itself in a position like that of IBM in the early 1980s, when IBM’s core mainframe business was threatened by what were then called microcomputers.
—John Rennie, IEEE Spectrum, 31 May 2011
See All Example Sentences for mainframe
Cite this Entry
“Mainframe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mainframe. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.
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mainframe
noun
main·frame
ˈmān-ˌfrām
: a large fast computer that can do many jobs at once
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