meg

IPA/meɡ/
KK[mˈɛɡ]IPA/meɡ/

meg — noun

  • megsingular
  • megsplural

1. a casual short way of saying megabyte, a measure of how much data a computer, ph

1.nounB2
Definition

a casual short way of saying megabyte, a measure of how much data a computer, phone, or storage card can hold or move.

Example

Christopher said the holiday video was almost ninety megs, too big to send by email.

[number] megs for a file size

The old phone had only a few hundred megs of space left for photos.

[number] megs of [space] for available storage

Common collocations
  • a few megs
  • hundred megs
  • megs of space
  • megs of data
  • free up megs
Synonyms
  • MB

    the written symbol; used in specs and on screens rather than in speech

  • megabyte

    the full, formal term that 'meg' shortens

Grammar Patterns

[number] megs

[number] megs of [data/space/memory]

Usage Note

Informal speech only — in writing, manuals, and specifications the full form 'megabyte' or the symbol 'MB' is used instead. Almost always plural with a number ('200 megs').

Common Mistakes

The file is 50 mega.
The file is 50 megs.
the casual short form is 'meg', never 'mega' on its own.
My laptop has 8 megs of memory.
My laptop has 8 gigs of memory.
modern memory is measured in gigabytes; 'megs' is far too small for that claim.

Word family

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • a few megs
  • [N] hundred megs
  • free up megs
  • [N] megs of space

Prepositions

  • of (megs of data / space / memory)

Etymology

GreekEnglish

A clipped, everyday form of 'megabyte', shortened the way speakers trim long technical words for quick conversation. 'Megabyte' itself joins the prefix 'mega-' — from the Greek word for great or large, used in measurements to mean one million — with 'byte', a 1950s coinage for the small group of bits a computer handles as a single chunk. As personal computers spread in the 1980s, 'meg' became the casual spoken shorthand for file and disk sizes.

First known use

1975

1975, in the meaning defined above