megabyte

noun

mega·​byte ˈme-gə-ˌbīt 

: 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes

also : one million bytes

Examples of megabyte in a Sentence

The CD has a storage capacity of 800 megabytes.

Recent Examples on the Web

Each chip contains 384 megabytes of SRAM, triple the amount in Ironwood. —Jordan Novet, CNBC, 22 Apr. 2026

The transition to making AI server chassis, which are significantly more expensive than general-purpose server chassis and house chips capable of processing terabytes of data as opposed to the megabytes of computers in the 1980s, has been challenging, Maggi Chen acknowledges. —Cat Wang, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2026

However, not even Google can wave its proverbial hand and change how modem firmware is written—we’re talking about tens of megabytes of executable machine code, which is a lot. —Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica, 13 Apr. 2026

The constant, nagging need to hunt for a coffee shop Wi-Fi password just to save a few megabytes. —Juhi Wadia, PC Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

from the fact that 1,048,576 (2²⁰) is the power of 2 closest to one million

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for megabyte

• acolyte
• aconite
• allanite
• alunite
• amberlite
• ammonite
• amorite
• amphitrite
• analyte
• anchorite
• andesite
• anhydrite

Kids Definition

megabyte

noun

mega·​byte ˈmeg-ə-ˌbīt 

: 1,048,576 bytes

also : one million bytes