byte

IPA/baɪt/
KK[bˈaɪt]IPA/baɪt/

byte — noun

  • bytesingular
  • bytesplural

1. the smallest chunk of data that a computer normally handles as one piece, made u

1.nounB2
Definition

the smallest chunk of data that a computer normally handles as one piece, made up of eight smaller signals called bits, and roughly enough space to store a single letter, digit, or symbol.

Example

A plain text file with the word 'hello' takes only five bytes.

[number] bytes of storage measurement

Marcus checked the file size and saw the photo was nearly four million bytes.

byte as a countable measure of file size

Common collocations
  • bytes of data
  • bytes of memory
  • millions of bytes
  • thousands of bytes
  • a few bytes
Synonyms
  • octet

    more technical term, mainly used in networking standards to stress exactly eight bits

Grammar Patterns

a [number] byte file

[number] bytes of [storage]

Usage Note

Often appears with prefixes like kilo-, mega-, giga-, and tera- (kilobyte, megabyte, etc.) to describe larger amounts. The plural 'bytes' is standard when counting; the singular is rare outside technical descriptions of structure.

Common Mistakes

My phone has 64 byte of memory.
My phone has 64 gigabytes of memory.
bare 'bytes' is far too small for device storage; use a prefix like giga- or tera-.
Each letter is one bytes.
Each letter is one byte.
use the singular 'byte' after 'one'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These three words all describe small units of digital information, but they sit at different levels and registers. A 'bit' is the smallest possible unit, holding just a single 0 or 1, and is mainly used to measure raw signal speed, as in 'a 100 megabit internet connection'. A 'byte' groups eight bits together and is the everyday unit people use to talk about file sizes and storage, as in 'the photo is two megabytes'. An 'octet' means exactly the same thing as a byte (eight bits) but is reserved for technical writing, especially in networking documents like RFCs, where authors want to be unambiguous. In normal speech and most software contexts, choose 'byte'; switch to 'bit' when discussing speed and to 'octet' only when reading or writing formal protocol specifications.

byte ↗bit ↗octet ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • byte order
  • byte stream
  • byte array
  • byte count

Phrases

  • a few bytes
  • thousands of bytes
  • millions of bytes

Prepositions

  • in bytes
  • per byte

Etymology

English (coined, IBM, 1956)

Coined in 1956 by computer engineer Werner Buchholz at IBM while he was working on the Stretch supercomputer. He spelled it with a 'y' instead of 'i' to avoid confusion with 'bit' if a single letter were ever dropped in writing. The word was loosely modeled on 'bit' (itself short for 'binary digit') and on the idea of a small mouthful of data, since a byte was meant to be the chunk a computer 'chews' at one time. By the 1960s the size had settled on eight bits as IBM's System/360 made that grouping standard.