Meanings
plural kilobytes
- especiallycomputingOne thousand (10³, or 1,000) bytes.
The data word processor 606 handles the in-flow and out-flow of byte-oriented input/output data and interleaved signals at a rate of, for example, 500 kilobytes per second. Instruction processing rates of four to eight per microsecond are required for such a data flow.
1969, Harold R. Dell, HIGH-DENSITY PERMANENT DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, US Patent 3638185 - informalespecially RAMcomputingA kibibyte.
It is assumed herein that each block includes 32 bytes, each sector includes 1 kilobyte, the buffer memory 116 includes 4 kilobytes, and read data is represented by one double word or 64 bits, as one word in this case consists of 32 bits.
1969, Hisashi Horikoshi, MEMORY CONTROL SYSTEM, US Patent 3618041
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Coined in the 1960s, from kilo- (“thousand”) + byte.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic كِيلُوبَايْت
- كِيلُوبَايْت (kilubayt)1024 bytes
Catalan quilooctet
- quilooctet1024 bytes
Chinese Mandarin 千字節 /千字节, KB
- 千字節 /千字节 (qiānzìjié)1024 bytes
- KB1024 bytes
Czech kilobyte, kilobajt
- kilobyte1024 bytes
- kilobajt1024 bytes
Esperanto kilobajto, kilobitoko
- kilobajto1024 bytes
- kilobitoko1024 bytes
Finnish kilotavu
- kilotavu1024 bytes
French kilooctet
- kilooctet1024 bytes
German Kilobyte
- Kilobyte1024 bytes
Greek κιλομπάιτ, χιλιοδυφιοσυλλαβή
- κιλομπάιτ (kilompáit)1024 bytes
- χιλιοδυφιοσυλλαβή (chiliodyfiosyllaví)1024 bytes
Hungarian kilobyte
- kilobyte1024 bytes
Italian kilobyte
- kilobyte1024 bytes
Japanese キロバイト
- キロバイト (kirobaito)1024 bytes
Korean 킬로바이트
- 킬로바이트 (killobaiteu)1024 bytes
Malay kilobait
- kilobait1024 bytes
Polish kilobajt
- kilobajt1024 bytes
Portuguese kilobyte
- kilobyte1024 bytes
Romanian kilobyte, kilooctet
- kilobyte1024 bytes
- kilooctet1024 bytes
Russian килоба́йт
- килоба́йт (kilobájt)1024 bytes
Spanish kilobyte
- kilobyte1024 bytes
Swedish kilobyte
- kilobyte1024 bytes
Thai กิโลไบต์
- กิโลไบต์ (gì-loo-bái)1024 bytes
Ukrainian кілоба́йт
- кілоба́йт (kilobájt)1024 bytes
Cite this entry
kilobyte. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kilobyte
“kilobyte.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kilobyte. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kilobyte,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kilobyte.
Source: kilobyte on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.