byte

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byte

/baɪt/

Sounds like bight, bite, by't · Rhymes with -aɪt

Where it comes from

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.

noun bytes

A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word.
A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits, which can represent any of 256 distinct values. The word “hello” fits into five bytes of ASCII code.
Similar: B, octet

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: octet, switch, conversion, flat, change, half-width, exchange, replacement, transfer, prey, game, switching, bit, shift, echos, character

Translations

Every language

noun 8-bit unit

Español	byte, octeto
한국어	바이트 baiteu
日本語	バイト baito
हिन्दी	बाइट bāiṭ
Kiswahili	baiti
Português	byte, baite
Français	octet
Deutsch	Byte
Italiano	byte, bicarattere, ottetto, multipletto
Ελληνικά	μπάιτ báit, δυφιοσυλλαβή dyfiosyllaví, δυφιοοκτάδα dyfiooktáda, ψηφιολέξη psifioléxi
Română	byte, octet
Русский	байт bajt, окте́т oktét
Tiếng Việt	byte, bai, bai-tơ
العربية	بَايْت bāyt
עברית	בַּיִת báyit

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Cite this

MLA

"byte." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/byte. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

byte. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/byte

Chicago

"byte." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/byte.

BibTeX

@misc{byte_2026,
  title = {byte},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/byte},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}