terabyte

[ ter-uh-bahyt ]

noun

, Computers.

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

/ ˈtɛrəˌbaɪt /

noun

1. computing 10 ¹²or 2 ⁴⁰bytes

terabyte

/ tĕr′ə-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

Word History and Origins

Origin of terabyte¹

First recorded in 1980–85; tera- + byte

Example Sentences

Even though a mouse brain is smaller than a human fingertip, the size of these datasets can easily reach between a few hundred gigabytes to a terabyte.

From Popular-Science

For context, in 2012, the Library of Congress had over 3,000 terabytes of data.

From Popular-Science

What’s more, according to Rubenstein’s rough calculations, a flask of small molecules could hold the same amount as 200 Empire State Buildings’ worth of terabyte hard drives.

From Popular-Science

Even if APPS and other databases had not yet achieved the level of function they were intended to, they still contain many terabytes of data on Afghan citizens that the Taliban can mine.

From MIT Technology Review

This isn’t an issue when you’re talking about relatively small amounts of data, but machine learning algorithms, especially during training, now routinely handle millions of data points and ingest terabytes of imagery or language.

From TechCrunch