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Glite Dictionary
megabyte

megabyte

10 3.0
A measure of computer data equal to about one million bytes
  • noun
  • /ˈmɛɡəˌbaɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : megabyte
  • He downloaded a file that was 150 megabytes in size to share with his colleagues.
  • megabytes of RAM
  • megabytes of memory
  • megabytes of storage

That is so jokes megabytes that's dumb fast.

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Examples

  • A 3-D numerical control program can require up to 5 megabytes of file space.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Each workstation will have several megabytes of memory and 80 megabytes of local storage.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Increased memory, 500 megabytes on-line.

    Short Circuit 2 (1988)

  • Currently, blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain are limited to one megabyte in file size.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Slow traffic will be fined for speeds less than three megabytes per second.

    Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

  • Note that all features together require more than 133 megabytes on your hard drive.

    Blog text (26)

  • A typical LHC event generates a megabyte of information.

    Academic text (2012)

  • IBM is selling a 2.88 megabyte drive, but the disks are expensive and uncommon.

    Blog text (11)

  • Typically, this activity is measured in megabytes per second (MB/s).

    Academic text (2000)

  • The computer was configured with 256 megabytes of RAM and an integrated video board.

    Academic text (2010)

Synonyms

MB
vsmegabyte
  • Specialized
17 3.0

A unit for measuring digital information of about one million bytes

is the full unit name used to measure data size or memory
meg
vsmegabyte
  • Informal
4 6.8

A unit for measuring file size equal to about one million bytes

is the standard technical form rather than casual spoken usage

How Much

terabyte
  • Specialized
8 4.1
gigabyte
  • Specialized
13 2.7
megabyte
  • Specialized
10 3.0
kilobyte
  • Specialized
4 3.6

Surface Forms

megabyte singular
megabytes plural

Morphology

megabyte = byte (semi-transparent) = mega + byte

The meaning follows the standard prefix 'mega-' plus 'byte', but the term is a technical unit name rather than fully everyday vocabulary.

Etymology

The word megabyte combines mega meaning 'large' and byte, a basic unit of computer data that you can think of as a tiny 'bite' of information. So a megabyte is a 'large' group of bytes, about one million bytes, which is why we use it to measure the size of files or memory.