Megabyte

Megabyte

Noun · /ˈmɛɡ.ə.baɪt/

Definition

A unit of digital information equal to one million bytes in the SI/decimal convention, or 1,048,576 bytes (2²⁰) in the binary convention traditionally used in computing; commonly abbreviated as MB.

Origin

From mega- (from Greek megas, great, large) + byte (a unit of digital information, typically 8 bits, a word coined by Werner Buchholz at IBM in 1956 from bit + the suffix -yte, possibly also influenced by bite, altered to avoid confusion). The megabyte emerged as a practical unit as computer storage began to be measured in the millions of bytes from the 1970s onwards.