Megabytes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A quantifiable unit in computing representing 1,024 kilobytes
2. A unit of digital data measurement equal to 1,024 kilobytes or approximately one million bytes
3. A measure of computer storage or memory capacity corresponding to 1,024 multiples of kilobytes

Etymology: Megabytes is the plural of "megabyte", and the word is a straightforward modern compound. Its first element, "mega-", comes from Greek "mégas", meaning "great" or "large", a root that also gives English words like "megaphone" and "megalith". The second element, "byte", was coined in English as a deliberately altered spelling of "bite": a computing term for a small unit of data, the same sound with a new spelling to avoid confusion with "bit". Put together, "megabyte" means roughly a "great byte", a unit equal to about a million bytes in everyday usage. The "mega-" prefix is used throughout the metric system to mark a multiple of a million, so the compound signals scale: the storage unit is simply a much larger quantity of the same basic unit.

Synonyms: MB, data units, storage units, kilobytes, gigabytes