noun Computers.
- adjacent bits, usually eight, processed by a computer as a unit.
- the combination of bits used to represent a particular letter, number, or special character.
noun computing
- a group of bits, usually eight, processed as a single unit of data
- the storage space in a memory or other storage device that is allocated to such a group of bits
- a subdivision of a word
1956, American English; see bit (n.2). Reputedly coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz at IBM.
- A sequence of adjacent bits operated on as a unit by a computer. A byte usually consists of eight bits. Amounts of computer memory are often expressed in terms of megabytes (1,048,576 bytes) or gigabytes (1,073,741,824 bytes).
In computer technology, a unit of information made up of bits (often eight bits). The memory capacity of a typical personal computer runs from millions to billions of bytes.