A megabyte is a unit of digital information commonly equal to about one million bytes, often used to measure file sizes and storage capacity. In some technical contexts, it can mean 1,048,576 bytes (1024 × 1024).
Formed from “mega-”, a metric prefix meaning 'one million', plus “byte”, a basic unit of digital information. The prefix “mega-” comes from Greek “megas” meaning 'great, large'. Computers adopted metric prefixes in the mid‑20th century to name growing data sizes.
Because computers like powers of two, a 'megabyte' in practice often means 1,048,576 bytes, not a neat one million—this tiny mismatch has confused users and fueled lawsuits over hard drive sizes. The 'mega' here is the same 'mega' in 'megastar'—just measuring data instead of fame.
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