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terabyte

American  
[ter-uh-bahyt] / ˈtɛr əˌbaɪt /

noun

Computers.
  • terabytes
    plural
  1. 2 40 (1,099,511,627,776) bytes; 1024 gigabytes.

  2. (loosely) 10 12 or one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) bytes; 1000 gigabytes. TB, TByte.


terabyte British  
/ ˈtɛrəˌbaɪt /

noun

  1. computing 10 12 or 2 40 bytes

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

terabyte Scientific  
/ tĕrə-bīt′ /
  1. A unit of computer memory or data storage capacity equal to 1,024 gigabytes (2 40 bytes).

  2. One trillion bytes.

  3. See Note at megabyte


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of terabyte

First recorded in 1980–85; tera- + byte

Vocabulary lists containing terabyte

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Affected hardware included the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage, which rose to $1,999 from $1,699 on its US store.

From BBC Jun. 25, 2026

They are targeting prices of $25 to $30 per terabyte in 2027 and 2028, Morgan Stanley noted.

From Barron's Jun. 15, 2026

“A terabyte is, for most people, gigantic, yet a fragment of a human brain – just a miniscule, teeny-weeny little bit of human brain – is still thousands of terabytes.”

From Science Daily May 9, 2024

Specifically, an expansion card about the size of half of a business card simply plugs into the back of the entertainment console and expands storage up to 1 terabyte.

From Washington Times Nov. 25, 2023

So, to support a terabyte, multiply by five, which gives $5 million per year for a supported terabyte of data.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress

Investigators cherry-picked from terabytes of data a handful of text messages that they showed to jurors, Halem’s former attorney Megan Maitia argued in her closing remarks.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 4, 2026

The biggest players in Silicon Valley are building data centers to more efficiently run copyright-infringement machines built on terabytes of pirated material.

From Salon Aug. 3, 2026

However Wada said that move directly led to their retrieval of 24 terabytes of data from the Moscow lab in January and April 2019.

From BBC Apr. 30, 2026

Each of Majestic’s new servers is capable of scaling up to 128 terabytes of high-speed memory, enough to smoothly run models with 5 trillion to 10 trillion parameters, the company says.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 28, 2026

For twenty years, something less than three terabytes would be required.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress

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