byte

See also: Byte

Contents

English

Etymology

A mutation of the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as 'bit'. It was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz in July 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer.[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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

Noun

byte (plural bytes)

1. (computing) A sequence of adjacent bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word; nearly always eight bits, which can represent an integer from 0 to 255 or a single character of text.
2. (computing) A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits

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

Synonyms

• (unit of storage): B
• (eight bits): octet

Derived terms

(unit of storage):

• kilobyte
• megabyte
• gigabyte
• terabyte
• petabyte
• exabyte
• yottabyte

Related terms

(unit of storage):

• Previous: bit
• Next: kilobyte

(machine word):

• Previous: nybble
• Next: word

Translations

unit

• Afrikaans: greep (af)
• Arabic: بَايْت‎ m (bāyt)
• Armenian: բայտ (hy) (bayt)
• Azerbaijani: bayt
• Belarusian: байт m (bajt)
• Bengali: বাইট (ba'iţ)
• Bulgarian: байт m (bajt)
• Burmese: ဘိုက် (bhuik)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 字節, 字节 (zi⁶ zit³), 位元組, 位元组 (wai⁶ jyun⁴ zou²)

  Mandarin: 字節 (zh), 字节 (zh) (zìjié), 位元組 (zh), 位元组 (zh) (wèiyuánzǔ)

• Czech: byte (cs) m
• Esperanto: bitoko, bajto
• Estonian: bait (et)
• Finnish: tavu (fi)
• French: octet (fr) m
• Galician: byte m
• Georgian: ბაიტი (baiṭi)
• German: Byte (de) n
• Greek: μπάιτ (báit), δυφιοσυλλαβή (dyfiosyllaví), δυφιοοκτάδα (el) (dyfiooktáda)
• Hebrew: בַּיִת‎ (he) (báyit)
• Hindi: बाइट (bāiṭ)
• Hungarian: bájt (hu)
• Icelandic: bæti (is) n, (computer character) tölvustafur m
• Ido: bicoko (io)
• Interlingua: byte
• Italian: byte (it) m
• Japanese: バイト (ja) (baito)
• Kazakh: байт (bayt)
• Khmer: បៃ (km) (bai)
• Korean: 바이트 (ko) (baiteu)

• Kyrgyz: байт (bayt)
• Lao: ໄບຕ໌ (bait), ໄບ (bai)
• Latin: octetus m
• Latvian: baits m
• Lithuanian: baitas (lt) m
• Macedonian: бајт m (bajt)
• Malay: bait
• Maori: paita
• Navajo: łaʼííłké
• Persian: بایت‎ (fa) (bâyt)
• Polish: bajt (pl) m
• Portuguese: byte (pt) m, baite (pt) m
• Romanian: byte (ro) m, octet (ro) m
• Russian: байт (ru) m (bajt), окте́т (ru) m (oktét)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бајт m

  Roman: bajt (sh) m

• Sinhalese: බයිට (bayiṭa)
• Slovak: byte m
• Spanish: byte (es) m
• Swedish: byte (sv) c
• Tajik: байт (tg) (bayt)
• Thai: ไบต์ (bái)
• Turkish: bayt (tr)
• Ukrainian: байт (uk) m (bajt)
• Urdu: لکمہ‎
• Uyghur: بايت‎ (bayt)
• Uzbek: bayt (uz)
• Vietnamese: byte (vi)
• Zulu: isimumathalwazi

See also

• word, doubleword, longword, char

Anagrams

• beyt, ybet

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Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English byte.

Noun

byte

1. (slang, rare) byte

Declension

Inflection of byte (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative		byte	bytet
genitive		byten	bytejen
partitive		byteä	bytejä
illative		byteen	byteihin
		singular	plural
nominative		byte	bytet
accusative	nom.	byte	bytet
	gen.	byten
genitive		byten	bytejen byteinrare
partitive		byteä	bytejä
inessive		bytessä	byteissä
elative		bytestä	byteistä
illative		byteen	byteihin
adessive		bytellä	byteillä
ablative		byteltä	byteiltä
allative		bytelle	byteille
essive		bytenä	byteinä
translative		byteksi	byteiksi
instructive		—	bytein
abessive		bytettä	byteittä
comitative		—	byteineen

Synonyms

• tavu

---

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbaːjt]
• Hyphenation: byte

Noun

byte (plural byte-ok)

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

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	byte	byte-ok
accusative	byte-ot	byte-okat
dative	byte-nak	byte-oknak
instrumental	byte-tal	byte-okkal
causal-final	byte-ért	byte-okért
translative	byte-tá	byte-okká
terminative	byte-ig	byte-okig
essive-formal	byte-ként	byte-okként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	byte-ban	byte-okban
superessive	byte-on	byte-okon
adessive	byte-nál	byte-oknál
illative	byte-ba	byte-okba
sublative	byte-ra	byte-okra
allative	byte-hoz	byte-okhoz
elative	byte-ból	byte-okból
delative	byte-ról	byte-okról
ablative	byte-tól	byte-októl

Possessive forms of byte
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	byte-om	byte-jaim
2nd person sing.	byte-od	byte-jaid
3rd person sing.	byte-ja	byte-jai
1st person plural	byte-unk	byte-jaink
2nd person plural	byte-otok	byte-jaitok
3rd person plural	byte-juk	byte-jaik

References

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English byte.

Noun

byte m (invariable)

1. (computing) byte

Synonyms

• bicarattere

---

Middle English

Verb

byte

1. Alternative form of biten

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Portuguese

Alternative forms

• baite

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbajt(ʃ)(i)/

Noun

byte m (plural bytes)

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

Synonyms

• Abbreviations: B

Coordinate terms

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

Related terms

• bit

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Spanish

Noun

byte m (plural bytes)

1. byte

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Swedish

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyːtɛ/

Noun

byte n

1. trading, exchange, change
2. catch, plunder, loot

Declension

Declension of byte
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	byte	bytet	byten	bytena
Genitive	bytes	bytets	bytens	bytenas

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bajt/, /baɪt/

Noun

byte c

1. a byte (8 bits, in computers)

Declension

Declension of byte
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	byte	byten	byte	byten
Genitive	bytes	bytens	bytes	bytens

References

• byte in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)