Bite or byte?
bite is a verb meaning “To cut into something by clamping the teeth”; byte is a noun meaning “A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a…”. Use bite as a verb and byte as a noun (bite is also a noun: “The act of biting”). They sound the same (/baɪt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) bite is about 14 times as common as byte.
What is the difference between bite and byte?
| bite | byte | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun |
| Meaning | To cut into something by clamping the teeth To hold something by clamping one's teeth The act of biting | A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits, which can represent any of 256 distinct values |
| Example | As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is | The word “hello” fits into five bytes of ASCII code |
| Forms | bites, biting, bit, bitten | bytes |
| Pronunciation | /baɪt/ | /baɪt/ |
| In writing | 20 times per million words | 1.4 times per million words |
Sources: bite and byte in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of bite and byte
bite
- 1
To cut into something by clamping the teeth
As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is
- 2
The act of biting
- 3
Acronym of behavior, information, thoughts, emotions (“four aspects of people's lives that a cult attempts to control”)
- 4
To hold something by clamping one's teeth
- 5
The wound left behind after having been bitten
That snake bite really hurts!
- 6
To attack with the teeth
That dog is about to bite!
- 7
The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting
After just one night in the jungle I was covered with mosquito bites
- 8
To behave aggressively; to reject advances
If you see me, come and say hello. I don't bite
byte
- 1
A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word
- 2
A unit of computing storage equal to eight bits, which can represent any of 256 distinct values
The word “hello” fits into five bytes of ASCII code
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, bite or byte?
bite appears 20 times per million words; byte 1.4 times per million words.
bite 20 times per million wordsbyte 1.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search bite vs byte?
“bite vs byte” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.