gigabyte
gigabyte Lexical Profile
gigabyte Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A unit of digital information or computer data storage capacity equal to one billion (10^9) bytes in the decimal system, or 1,073,741,824 (2^30) bytes in binary computing contexts (abbreviated GB).
"The high-definition video file requires more than four gigabytes of free space on the external hard drive."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse a gigabyte (abbreviated GB) with a gigabit (Gb); one byte equals eight bits, so data transfer speeds measured in gigabits per second are one-eighth the volume of gigabytes per second. Additionally, storage manufacturers define a gigabyte in decimal terms (1,000,000,000 bytes), whereas operating systems often calculate capacity in binary terms (1,073,741,824 bytes, technically a gibibyte).
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the late 20th century from the metric prefix 'giga-' (derived from the Ancient Greek 'gigas', meaning 'giant') and 'byte' (a deliberate respelling of 'bite' coined by IBM computer scientist Werner Buchholz in 1956 to prevent accidental mutation to 'bit').