OCTET
What does "OCTET" mean?
A group of eight, especially eight musicians, a piece for them, or a unit of eight bits in computing.
Meanings
- A group of eight musicians, or a musical composition written for eight performers. Schubert's octet is scored for strings and winds and runs nearly an hour.
- A unit of eight bits, used in computing to mean unambiguously what 'byte' usually means. Network standards specify packet sizes in octets to avoid confusion about byte length. technical
- Any set or group of eight people or things. An octet of rowers strained against the current.
Did you know?
- Networking engineers say 'octet' instead of 'byte' on purpose: early computers used bytes of 6, 7, or 9 bits, so 'octet' was adopted to mean exactly eight bits with zero ambiguity.
Word origin
From Latin 'octo' (eight), shaped on the model of 'duet' and 'quartet' to name a group of eight.
Remember it
OCTET = OCT (eight) + ET, the same '-et' that makes a quartet four; an octet is simply twice as crowded.
Wordplay
- An octet walked into a bar. The bartender said, 'Sorry, we don't serve groups of eight bits.' They left, byte by byte.
What it teaches
The same eight can be a chord or a byte; what a group means depends on the language you count it in.
Quick facts
What does OCTET mean?
A group of eight, especially eight musicians, a piece for them, or a unit of eight bits in computing.
Is OCTET a valid word?
Yes — OCTET is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is OCTET?
OCTET has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does OCTET come from?
From Latin 'octo' (eight), shaped on the model of 'duet' and 'quartet' to name a group of eight.
What can OCTET teach us?
The same eight can be a chord or a byte; what a group means depends on the language you count it in.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.