gigabit

3 4.0

A measure of computer data equal to one billion bits used for internet speed or file size

noun
/ˈɡɪɡəˌbɪt/

Specialized

: gigabit

The new router can support a data transfer rate of gigabit per second.

Examples

The company is proud to say that they will be offering 1 gigabit-per-second downloads and uploads.

Blog text (17)
With a gigabit connection, downloads complete in just a few seconds.
So we also have a full Gigabit Internet connectivity here.
So we pipe that in to our local Gigabit switch.
Data rates in the range of 1 to 10 gigabits per second are of interest for the immediate future.

Academic text (1994)
The fiber network connects schools and other community anchor institutions with gigabit networks.

Blog text (4)
Lastly, and by no means least, on the front edge of the board, we've got a Gigabit Ethernet socket.
Many internet service providers now offer plans with gigabit connections.

Synonyms

vsgigabit

Specialized

1 4.3

A unit of data equal to one billion bits

is the full written form rather than the short abbreviation

Gbit

vsgigabit

Specialized

1 3.8

A unit for digital data equal to one thousand million bits

is the common name written in full instead of this variant

How Big

Eibit

Specialized

9.9

petabit

Specialized

7.5

terabit

Specialized

1 5.1

gigabit

Specialized

3 4.0

megabit

Specialized

2 3.7

kilobit

Specialized

1 4.8

bit

Specialized

106 4.4

Surface Forms

gigabit singular

gigabits plural

Morphology

gigabit = bit (transparent) = giga + bit

The metric prefix 'giga-' meaning one billion combines with the computing unit 'bit' to yield a straightforward meaning (one billion bits).

Etymology

The word gigabit joins the parts giga-, from Greek meaning 'giant' and used to mean a billion, and bit, short for 'binary digit' and the smallest piece of information. So you can think of a gigabit as a 'giant bit', which is why it is one billion bits and is used to talk about fast internet speeds and large amounts of data.