kilobyte

noun

ki·​lo·​byte ˈki-lə-ˌbīt  ˈkē-lə- 

: a unit of computer information equal to 1024 bytes

also : one thousand bytes

Did you know?

Knowing the root kilo-, you might think a kilobyte would be exactly 1,000 bytes. But actually a kilobyte represents the power of 2 that comes closest to 1,000: that is, 210 (2 to the 10th power), or 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2, or 1,024. Why 2? Because the capacity of memory chips is always based on powers of 2. Locations in electronic memory circuits are identified by binary numbers (numbers that use only the digits 0 and 1), so the number of addressable locations becomes a power of 2.

Examples of kilobyte in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Navigating in this fashion within an indoor environment, the drone was able to autonomously make its way back to base along a winding 100-meter (328-ft) obstacle course using just 1.16 kilobytes of memory – that's well within the capacity of most commercial micro drones. —Ben Coxworth, New Atlas, 18 July 2024

Net was available nationally, the three plans shown here offered data caps of between 50K (yes, kilobytes) and 300K a month, with each additional kilobyte costing 20 cents. —Cameron Kaiser, Ars Technica, 25 Apr. 2024

With the official firmware taking up most of the radio’s 64 kilobytes of flash memory, such mods have to fit into less than 3 KB. —IEEE Spectrum, 27 Mar. 2024

Then, an alert sent to railway operators is mere kilobytes in size. —Matt Simon, WIRED, 31 Jan. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from the fact that 1024 (2¹⁰) is the power of 2 closest to 1000

First Known Use

1970, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

kilobyte

noun

ki·​lo·​byte ˈkē-lə-ˌbīt 

ˈkil-ə-

: 1024 bytes