octet
octet Lexical Profile
octet Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A musical ensemble of eight singers or instrumentalists, or a composition written for such a group.
"The chamber music festival opened with a lively performance of Mendelssohn's string octet."
In chemistry, a stable group of eight valence electrons occupying the outer shell of an atom.
"Noble gases are chemically unreactive primarily because their atoms already possess a complete outer octet of electrons."
The first eight lines of a sonnet, or a stanza consisting of eight lines of verse.
"In a traditional Petrarchan sonnet, the opening octet introduces a central question or problem that the sestet resolves."
In computing and telecommunications, a unit of digital information that consists of exactly eight bits.
"Each section of an IPv4 network address is represented by an eight-bit octet ranging in value from zero to 255."
• Rhymes for octet
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-19th century from Italian ottetto or German Oktett, formed from Latin octo ('eight') on the model of duet and quartet.