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# byte

noun (a byte, bytes)

«byte» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

A unit of computer memory or data made of 8 bits (8 ones and zeros); one byte can store one letter like «A». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#m1)

### In the lessons

In computing lessons, bytes measure file sizes and memory: kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), terabytes (TB). It tells you how much space a photo, song or game takes up. Phrase: «a byte of data».

### Examples

- One byte is made of eight bits. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x1)
- A single letter takes up about one byte. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x2)
- This photo is about 3 megabytes. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x3)
- My tablet has 64 gigabytes of storage. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x4)
- A kilobyte is about a thousand bytes. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x5)
- The game needs a lot of bytes of memory. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x6)
- We counted the bytes in our secret binary message. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/#x7)

### Note

Countable: a byte, bytes. Homophone trap: «byte» sounds like «bite» (with teeth) and «bight» (a curve in a coast). In maths: 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 kilobyte = 1,000 bytes (or 1,024 in older computer counting); 1 megabyte = 1,000 kilobytes; 1 gigabyte = 1,000 megabytes.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «byte» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/byte/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«byte» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/byte.html) on Mova free.