And yet people know exactly what I mean when I say "big 5" tech company.

How is it that everyone that I talk to, knows what I am talking about when I say those words, but apparently you don't?

I don’t know. I don’t see how anybody could know which companies you mean when you say big 5 tech companies. Which ones did you mean?

It is a short hand for the major/prestigious tech companies.

So it would be Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and maybe Netflix depending on who you ask.

And yes, I know that is more than 5 companies. It is a shorthand for "those prestigious, large tech companies that new grads apply to, and hire lots of people, and have large market caps".

If I talk to any new grad who is applying to companies these day, they will know what I mean when I say "big 5 tech companies".

This is a very common term in the interview/tech market and discussions.

Yeah, new grads being confused doesn’t surprise me. We don’t call that big 5 in the real world ;)

Language is defined by how it is used.

The fact that this is how people use these words, makes it the definition.

Lots of people in the real world know exactly what it means when people say "big 5 tech companies".

You'd have to be extremely obtuse to not know what people mean when they say those words.

Then what measure would you propose? I'd definitely say these companies are an outlier in the amount of influence they wield.*

* Admittedly would swap Netflix with Microsoft in the FAANG acronym.