byte

An alteration of the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as bit. Coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM 7030 Stretch computer.

• IPA^(key): /baɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: bight, bite, by't

byte (plural bytes)

1. (computing) A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word.
3. (computing, most commonly) A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits, which can represent any of 256 distinct values.

   Synonyms: B, octet

   The word “hello” fits into five bytes of ASCII code.

   • 1984, Neil Ardley, “The ZX Spectrum+ Memory Map”, Learn About Your ZX Spectrum+ (3), in Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ User Guide, Dorling Kindersley, →ISBN, page 48:

     If you look at the photograph of the interior of the Spectrum , you will see that there is one ROM chip, and 16 smaller RAM chips. These chips give the Spectrum its memory. The memory consists of 65536 storage units that each contain one byte (a number from 0 to 255).

   • 2008, Eric Johnson, Joshua Jones, A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server:

     With a varchar, the storage is always the actual number of characters you have stored plus 2 bytes. So a varchar(20) with a 5-character word will take up 7 bytes, with the extra 2 bytes holding a size reference for SQL Server.

(machine word):

• Previous: nibble, nybble
• Next: word

(unit of storage):

• Previous: bit
• Next: kilobyte

(unit of storage):

• word, doubleword, longword, char

• byte on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• beyt

From English byte.

• IPA^(key): /bai̯t/
• Rhymes: -ai̯t

byte inan

1. (computing) byte

• “byte”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:

byte

Wikipedia ^cs

• bajt

• IPA^(key):

byte m inan

1. byte

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key):
• Homophone: bite

byte

1. vocative singular of byt

• “byte”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “byte”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz (in Czech), 1995

Borrowed from English byte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyte/,
• Rhymes: -yte
• Syllabification^(key): by‧te
• Hyphenation^(key): by‧te

byte (rare, slang)

1. byte

• tavu

• “byte”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja ‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Borrowed from English byte.

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: byte
• Rhymes: -aːjt
• Homophone: bájt

byte (plural byte-ok)

1. (computing) byte (a unit of computing storage equal to eight bits)

It also occurs in the form bájt (along with its prefixed forms), but this spelling is not supported by most authoritative spelling dictionaries.

• byte in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).
• Biró, János. Helyesírási kérdések A magyar nyelv nagyszótárának írása közben (“Questions of spelling while compiling the Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”) (see page 5 in the PDF, page 55 in the original)

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

byte

Wikipedia ^it

Borrowed from English byte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈba.it/
• Rhymes: -ait

byte m (invariable)

1. (computing) byte

   Synonym: bicarattere

byte

1. alternative form of biten

• baite

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbajt(ʃ)(i)/

byte m (plural bytes)

1. (computing) byte (unit equivalent to 8 bits)

• Abbreviations: B

• Multiples: kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte, yottabyte

• bit

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbajt/

byte m (plural byți)

1. (computing) byte

   Synonym: octet

• bajt

byte m inan

1. byte

• “byte”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbait/
• Rhymes: -ait

byte m (plural bytes)

1. byte

• “byte”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy , 10 December 2024

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

byte

Wikipedia ^sv

Related to byta (“to change, to exchange, to swap”)

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyːtɛ/

byte n

1. a change; changing (replacing)

   byte av olja i bilen

   changing the oil in the car

   (literally, “change of oil in the car”)

   däckbyte

   tire change

   1. an exchange; a trade

      Jag ger dig en grej och får en annan grej i retur. Det är ett byte.

      I give you one thing and get another thing in return. That's an exchange.

2. a prey

   Vargen tog ett byte

   The wolf caught a prey

   Han var ett lätt byte

   He was an easy prey

3. a catch, a plunder, a loot

   piraternas stora byte

   the pirates' big loot

• fångst (“catch”)

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

• IPA^(key): /bajt/, /baɪt/

byte c

1. a byte (8 bits, in computers)

• byte in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• byte in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• byte in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)