A Nibble Is Also Half a Byte
To nibble is to take small bites. Computing borrowed the word as a joke, for four bits.
To nibble is to take small repeated bites. Computing made a pun of it: a *nibble* — sometimes spelled *nybble* — is four bits, or half a byte. The joke works because a byte is a bite, deliberately respelled to avoid confusion with *bit*. A nibble is exactly one hexadecimal digit, which makes it genuinely useful.
- To take small bites. *Nibble the biscuit.*
- A small bite. *A nibble of cheese.*
- Half a byte. *Four bits, one nibble.*
- A tentative interest. *We had a nibble from a buyer.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | nibble | Nibble at it. |
| Past | nibbled | Mice nibbled the sack. |
| Noun | nibble | A small nibble. |
| Plural | nibbles | Party nibbles. |
| Related | byte | Eight bits, one byte. |
How it is used in a sentence
- A nibble is four bits.Half a byte.
- Nibbles are party snacks.British.
- We had a nibble on the house.A tentative offer.
Digital units
- Bit — a single binary digit
- Nibble — four bits, one hexadecimal digit
- Byte — eight bits, respelled from *bite* to avoid confusion
- Word — a processor's natural unit, varying by architecture
- Kilobyte — a thousand or 1,024 bytes, depending who is counting
An imitative frequentative form, probably from Low German. The computing sense dates from the 1950s.
Why is a byte spelled that way?
It was deliberately respelled from *bite* so it could not be mistyped or misread as *bit*.
Is a nibble really used?
Yes. Each nibble maps to exactly one hexadecimal digit, which makes it a natural unit when reading binary data.