Noun | 1. | bit - a small quantity; "a spot of tea"; "a bit of paper" Synonyms: spot |
2. | bit - a small fragment of something broken off from the whole; "a bit of rock caught him in the eye" | |
3. | bit - an indefinitely short time; "wait just a moment"; "it only takes a minute"; "in just a bit" | |
4. | bit - an instance of some kind; "it was a nice piece of work"; "he had a bit of good luck" Synonyms: piece | |
5. | bit - piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding; "the horse was not accustomed to a bit" | |
6. | bit - a unit of measurement of information (from Binary + digIT); the amount of information in a system having two equiprobable states; "there are 8 bits in a byte" | |
7. | bit - a small amount of solid food; a mouthful; "all they had left was a bit of bread" | |
8. | bit - a small fragment; "overheard snatches of their conversation" Synonyms: snatch | |
9. | bit - a short theatrical performance that is part of a longer program; "he did his act three times every evening"; "she had a catchy little routine"; "it was one of the best numbers he ever did" | |
10. | bit - the cutting part of a drill; usually pointed and threaded and is replaceable in a brace or bitstock or drill press; "he looked around for the right size bit" |
(unit) | bit - (b) binary digit. The unit of information; the amount of information obtained by asking a yes-or-no question; a computational quantity that can take on one of two values, such as false and true or 0 and 1; the smallest unit of storage - sufficient to hold one bit. A bit is said to be "set" if its value is true or 1, and "reset" or "clear" if its value is false or 0. One speaks of setting and clearing bits. To toggle or "invert" a bit is to change it, either from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0. The term "bit" first appeared in print in the computer-science sense in 1949, and seems to have been coined by the eminent statistician, John Tukey. Tukey records that it evolved over a lunch table as a handier alternative to "bigit" or "binit". See also flag, trit, mode bit, byte, word. |