byte

See also: Byte and bytě

English

Etymology

An alteration of the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as bit. Coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM 7030 Stretch computer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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

Noun

byte (plural bytes)

1. (computing) A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word.
3. (computing, most commonly) A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits, which can represent any of 256 distinct values.

   Synonyms: B, octet

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

   • 1984, Neil Ardley, “The ZX Spectrum+ Memory Map”, Learn About Your ZX Spectrum+ (3), in Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ User Guide, Dorling Kindersley, →ISBN, page 48:

     If you look at the photograph of the interior of the Spectrum […], you will see that there is one ROM chip, and 16 smaller RAM chips. These chips give the Spectrum its memory. The memory consists of 65536 storage units that each contain one byte (a number from 0 to 255).

   • 2008, Eric Johnson, Joshua Jones, A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server:

     With a varchar, the storage is always the actual number of characters you have stored plus 2 bytes. So a varchar(20) with a 5-character word will take up 7 bytes, with the extra 2 bytes holding a size reference for SQL Server.

Coordinate terms

(machine word):

• Previous: nibble, nybble
• Next: word

(unit of storage):

• Previous: bit
• Next: kilobyte

Derived terms

(unit of storage):

Compound words

• brontobyte
• byte bucket
• bytecode
• byte order
• byter
• bytesexual
• bytestring
• bytewise
• exabyte
• exbibyte
• geopbyte
• gibibyte
• gigabyte
• googolbyte
• hellabyte
• interbyte
• kibibyte
• kilobyte
• mebibyte
• megabyte
• multibyte
• nonbyte
• pebibyte
• petabyte
• qubibyte
• qubyte
• quebibyte
• queccabyte
• quettabyte
• robibyte
• ronnabyte
• tebibyte
• terabyte
• tryte
• yobibyte
• yottabyte
• zebibyte
• zettabyte

other phrases

• byte code
• byte order mark, byte-order mark
• byte pair encoding
• least significant byte
• most significant byte
• multi-byte

Translations

8-bit unit

• Afrikaans: greep (af)
• Arabic: بَايْت m (bāyt)
• Aragonese: byte m, octeto m
• Armenian: բայտ (hy) (bayt)
• Asturian: byte m
• Azerbaijani: bayt
• Belarusian: байт m (bajt)
• Bengali: বাইট (bn) (baiṭ)
• Breton: eizhbit (br) m
• Bulgarian: байт m (bajt)
• Burmese: ဘိုက် (bhuik)
• Catalan: byte (ca) m, octet m
• Chinese:

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

  Mandarin: 字節 / 字节 (zh) (zìjié) (mainland China), 位元組 / 位元组 (zh) (wèiyuánzǔ) (Taiwan)

• Czech: bajt (cs) m, byte (cs) m
• Esperanto: bajto, bitoko, okopo
• Estonian: bait (et)
• Finnish: tavu (fi)
• French: octet (fr) m
• Galician: byte (gl) m
• Georgian: ბაიტი (baiṭi)
• German: Byte (de) n
• Greek: μπάιτ (báit), δυφιοσυλλαβή (el) (dyfiosyllaví), δυφιοοκτάδα (el) (dyfiooktáda), ψηφιολέξη (el) f (psifioléxi)
• Hebrew: בַּיִת (he) (báyit)
• Hindi: बाइट (bāiṭ)
• Hungarian: byte (hu)
• Icelandic: bæti (is) n, (computer character) tölvustafur m
• Ido: bicoko (io)
• Indonesian: bita (id)
• Interlingua: byte
• Italian: byte (it) m, bicarattere (it) m (rare), ottetto (it) m (rare), multipletto (it) m (rare)
• 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
• Lü: ᦢᦺ (ḃay)
• Macedonian: бајт m (bajt)
• Malay: bait
• Māori: paita
• Mirandese: byte m, oteto m
• Navajo: łaʼííłké
• Occitan: byte m, octet (oc) m
• 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

  Latin: bajt (sh) m

• Sicilian: byte
• Sinhalese: බයිට (bayiṭa)
• Slovak: bajt m, byte m
• Spanish: byte (es) m, octeto (es) m
• Swahili: baiti (sw)
• Swedish: byte (sv) c
• Tajik: байт (tg) (bayt)
• Thai: ไบต์ (th) (bái)

  Northern Thai: ᨷᩱ

• Tibetan: ཡིག་ཚིགས (yig tshigs)
• Turkish: bayt (tr)
• Ukrainian: байт (uk) m (bajt)
• Urdu: لکمہ
• Uyghur: بايت (bayt)
• Uzbek: bayt (uz)
• Vietnamese: byte (vi), bai (vi), bai-tơ
• Welsh: beit m
• Yiddish: בײַט (bayt)
• Zulu: isimumathalwazi

See also

• word, doubleword, longword, char

Further reading

• byte on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• beyt

Basque

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-

Proto-Indo-European *-t

Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydt

Proto-Germanic *bītaną

Proto-West Germanic *bītan

Old English bītan

Middle English biten

English bite

English byteder.

Basque byte

Derived from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bai̯t/ [bai̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -ai̯t

Noun

byte inan

1. (computing) byte

Declension

Declension of byte (inan V-stem¹²)

	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	byte	bytea	byteak	byteok
ergative	bytek	byteak	byteek	byteok
dative	byteri	byteari	byteei	byteoi
genitive	byteren	bytearen	byteen	byteon
comitative	byterekin	bytearekin	byteekin	byteokin
causative	byterengatik	bytearengatik	byteengatik	byteongatik
benefactive	byterentzat	bytearentzat	byteentzat	byteontzat
instrumental	bytez	byteaz	byteez	byteotaz
inessive	bytetan	bytean	byteetan	byteotan
locative	bytetako	byteko	byteetako	byteotako
allative	bytetara	bytera	byteetara	byteotara
terminative	bytetaraino	byteraino	byteetaraino	byteotaraino
directive	bytetarantz	byterantz	byteetarantz	byteotarantz
destinative	bytetarako	byterako	byteetarako	byteotarako
ablative	bytetatik	bytetik	byteetatik	byteotatik
partitive	byterik	—	—	—
prolative	bytetzat	—	—	—

1. Optionally, case suffixes can be separated from the root with a hyphen.
2. Words ending in a written vowel but pronounced with a final consonant follow consonant declension in speech but vowel declension in writing.

Further reading

• “byte”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

Czech

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

• bajt

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbajt]

Noun

byte m inan

1. byte

Declension

Declension of byte (hard masculine inanimate foreign)

	singular	plural
nominative	byte	byty
genitive	bytu	bytů
dative	bytu	bytům
accusative	byte	byty
vocative	byte	byty
locative	bytu	bytech
instrumental	bytem	byty

Derived terms

• gigabyte
• kilobyte
• megabyte
• terabyte

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɪtɛ]
• Homophone: bite

Noun

byte

1. vocative singular of byt

Further reading

• “byte”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “byte”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyte/, [ˈbyt̪e̞]
• Rhymes: -yte
• Syllabification^(key): by‧te
• Hyphenation^(key): by‧te

Noun

byte (rare, slang)

1. 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 bytein rare
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
abessive		bytettä	byteittä
instructive		—	bytein
comitative		See the possessive forms below.

Possessive forms of byte (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)

first-person singular possessor singular plural nominative byteni byteni accusative nom. byteni byteni gen. byteni genitive byteni bytejeni byteini rare partitive byteäni bytejäni inessive bytessäni byteissäni elative bytestäni byteistäni illative byteeni byteihini adessive bytelläni byteilläni ablative byteltäni byteiltäni allative bytelleni byteilleni essive bytenäni byteinäni translative bytekseni byteikseni abessive bytettäni byteittäni instructive — — comitative — byteineni second-person singular possessor singular plural nominative bytesi bytesi accusative nom. bytesi bytesi gen. bytesi genitive bytesi bytejesi byteisi rare partitive byteäsi bytejäsi inessive bytessäsi byteissäsi elative bytestäsi byteistäsi illative byteesi byteihisi adessive bytelläsi byteilläsi ablative byteltäsi byteiltäsi allative bytellesi byteillesi essive bytenäsi byteinäsi translative byteksesi byteiksesi abessive bytettäsi byteittäsi instructive — — comitative — byteinesi first-person plural possessor singular plural nominative bytemme bytemme accusative nom. bytemme bytemme gen. bytemme genitive bytemme bytejemme byteimme rare partitive byteämme bytejämme inessive bytessämme byteissämme elative bytestämme byteistämme illative byteemme byteihimme adessive bytellämme byteillämme ablative byteltämme byteiltämme allative bytellemme byteillemme essive bytenämme byteinämme translative byteksemme byteiksemme abessive bytettämme byteittämme instructive — — comitative — byteinemme second-person plural possessor singular plural nominative bytenne bytenne accusative nom. bytenne bytenne gen. bytenne genitive bytenne bytejenne byteinne rare partitive byteänne bytejänne inessive bytessänne byteissänne elative bytestänne byteistänne illative byteenne byteihinne adessive bytellänne byteillänne ablative byteltänne byteiltänne allative bytellenne byteillenne essive bytenänne byteinänne translative byteksenne byteiksenne abessive bytettänne byteittänne instructive — — comitative — byteinenne third-person possessor singular plural nominative bytensä bytensä accusative nom. bytensä bytensä gen. bytensä genitive bytensä bytejensä byteinsä rare partitive byteään byteänsä bytejään bytejänsä inessive bytessään bytessänsä byteissään byteissänsä elative bytestään bytestänsä byteistään byteistänsä illative byteensä byteihinsä adessive bytellään bytellänsä byteillään byteillänsä ablative byteltään byteltänsä byteiltään byteiltänsä allative bytelleen bytellensä byteilleen byteillensä essive bytenään bytenänsä byteinään byteinänsä translative bytekseen byteksensä byteikseen byteiksensä abessive bytettään bytettänsä byteittään byteittänsä instructive — — comitative — byteineen byteinensä

Synonyms

• tavu

Further reading

• “byte”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[4] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Hungarian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbaːjt]
• Hyphenation: byte
• Rhymes: -aːjt
• Homophone: bájt

Noun

byte (plural byte-ok)

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

Usage notes

It also occurs in the form bájt (along with its prefixed forms), but this spelling is not supported by most authoritative spelling dictionaries.

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
non-attributive possessive – singular	byte-é	byte-oké
non-attributive possessive – plural	byte-éi	byte-okéi

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

Further reading

• byte in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).
• Biró, János. Helyesírási kérdések A magyar nyelv nagyszótárának írása közben (“Questions of spelling while compiling the Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”) (see page 5 in the PDF, page 55 in the original)

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈba.it/
• Rhymes: -ait

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

byte m (invariable)

1. (computing) byte

   Synonym: bicarattere

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

byte

1. alternative form of bite

Etymology 2

Verb

byte

1. alternative form of biten

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• baite

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbaj.t͡ʃi/ [ˈbaɪ̯.t͡ʃi]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbaj.tɨ/

• Rhymes: -ajt͡ʃi, -ajtɨ
• Hyphenation: by‧te
• Homophone: baite

Noun

byte m (plural bytes, abbreviation B)

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

Coordinate terms

Multiples

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

Related terms

• bit

Further reading

• “byte”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “byte”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-

Proto-Indo-European *-t

Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydt

Proto-Germanic *bītaną

Proto-West Germanic *bītan

Old English bītan

Middle English biten

English bite

English byteubor.

Romanian byte

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbajt/

Noun

byte m (plural byți)

1. (computing) byte

   Synonym: octet

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	byte	byteul	byți	byții
genitive-dative	byte	byteului	byți	byților
vocative	byteule		byților

Slovak

Alternative forms

• bajt

Noun

byte m inan

1. byte

Further reading

• “byte”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-

Proto-Indo-European *-t

Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydt

Proto-Germanic *bītaną

Proto-West Germanic *bītan

Old English bītan

Middle English biten

English bite

English byteubor.

Spanish byte

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbait/ [ˈbai̯t̪]
• Rhymes: -ait
• Syllabification: byte

Noun

byte m (plural bytes)

1. byte

   Synonym: octeto

Further reading

• “byte”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish byte, from Middle Low German bûte. Compare English booty.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyːtɛ/

Noun

byte n

1. a change; changing (replacing)

   byte av olja i bilen

   changing the oil in the car

   (literally, “change of oil in the car”)

   däckbyte

   tire change

   1. an exchange; a trade

      Jag ger dig en grej och får en annan grej i retur. Det är ett byte.

      I give you one thing and get another thing in return. That's an exchange.

2. a prey

   Vargen tog ett byte

   The wolf caught a prey

   Han var ett lätt byte

   He was an easy prey

3. a catch, a plunder, a loot

   piraternas stora byte

   the pirates' big loot

Declension

Declension of byte

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	byte	bytes
	definite	bytet	bytets
plural	indefinite	byten	bytens
	definite	bytena	bytenas

See also

• fångst (“catch”)

Etymology 2

Unadapted borrowing from English byte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bajt/, /baɪt/

Noun

byte c

1. a byte (8 bits, in computers)

Declension

Declension of byte

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	byte	bytes
	definite	byten	bytens
plural	indefinite	byte	bytes
	definite	byten	bytens

References

• “byte”, in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker [Dictionaries of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)