zettabyte

Z10E1T1T1A1B3Y4T1E1
/ˈzɛtəbaɪt/

noun

One sextillion (10²¹, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) bytes or 1,000 exabytes.

Similar
ZBzebibyteZiB
OriginEnglish byte ← Middle English biten ← Old English bītan →
Scrabble 23
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounzettabyte (plural zettabytes)

plural zettabytes

  1. computingOne sextillion (10²¹, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) bytes or 1,000 exabytes.

    Conservative estimates put data produced in 2020 alone at 44 zettabytes.

    2015 January 2, Fiona Graham, “Look-ahead 2015: Fly into the future and other predictions”, in BBC News
    2 more examples

    Cerberus Scientist: I'm sorry, sir. None of Normandy's surveillance feeds have been responding since Shepard went rogue. Illusive Man: I want it back. Retry the remote lockdown protocols. Cerberus Scientist: After our last attempt, EDI flooded our server with seven zettabytes of explicit images. I think she was making a joke.

    2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Cronos Station

    For such quantities, it is necessary to introduce a further unit: the zettabyte which corresponds to 1000 exabytes. The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts the world's data will grow to 175 zettabytes in 2025.

    2021, Giuseppe Arbia, Statistics, New Empiricism and Society in the Era of Big Data, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 5
  2. informalcomputingA zebibyte.

Synonyms & antonyms

Similar
ZB

nouna unit of information equal to 1000 exabytes or 10^21 bytes

Similar
ZB
Broader
computer memory unit

nouna unit of information equal to 1024 exbibytes or 2^70 bytes

Similar
zebibyteZBZiB
Broader
computer memory unit
Also see
zebibyte

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Afroasiatic*sṗɣ?
  2. Proto-Semitic*šabʕ-bor.?
  3. Proto-Indo-European*septḿ̥
  4. Proto-Italic*septəm
  5. Latinseptem
  6. Proto-Indo-European*septḿ̥
  7. Proto-Hellenic*heptə́
  8. Ancient Greekἑπτᾰ́ (heptắ)
  9. Englishzetta-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeyd-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéydt
  12. Proto-Germanic*bītaną
  13. Proto-West Germanic*bītan
  14. Old Englishbītan
  15. Middle Englishbiten
  16. Englishbite
  17. Englishbyte
  18. Englishzettabyte

From zetta- + byte.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic زِيتَابَايْت
  • زِيتَابَايْت (zītābāyt)270 or 1021 bytes
Chinese Mandarin 澤字節 /泽字节, ZB
  • 澤字節 /泽字节 (zézìjié)270 or 1021 bytes
  • ZB270 or 1021 bytes
Esperanto zetabajto, zetabitoko
  • zetabajto270 or 1021 bytes
  • zetabitoko270 or 1021 bytes
Finnish tsettatavu
  • tsettatavu270 or 1021 bytes
German Zettabyte
  • Zettabyte270 or 1021 bytes
Japanese ゼタバイト, ゼッタバイト
  • ゼタバイト (zetabaito)270 or 1021 bytes
  • ゼッタバイト (zettabaito)270 or 1021 bytes
Korean 제타바이트
  • 제타바이트 (jetabaiteu)270 or 1021 bytes
Malay zetabait
  • zetabait270 or 1021 bytes
Polish zettabajt
  • zettabajt270 or 1021 bytes
Portuguese zettabyte
  • zettabyte270 or 1021 bytes
Russian зеттаба́йт
  • зеттаба́йт (zɛttabájt)270 or 1021 bytes
Cite this entry
APA

zettabyte. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zettabyte

MLA

“zettabyte.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zettabyte. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “zettabyte,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zettabyte.

Source: zettabyte on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.