Quantisation noise

Definition
Any digital waveform contains a degree of quantisation noise, because in digital waveforms the signal jumps from one quantisation step to the next, rather than following the continuous signal at all posible points in time. The best way to avoid it is to use a large number of amplitude steps. The amplitude of quantisation noise can best be expressed in relation to the maximum possible amplitude of the signal.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics