What is the name for a unit made up of 8 bits?

A unit made up of 8 bits is called a byte. This is a fundamental concept in computer science, as bytes are the basic building blocks of data storage and processing in computers. A byte can represent a single character of data, such as a letter or a number, in various encoding systems, like ASCII.

The other terms refer to different units of measurement in computing. A nibble consists of 4 bits, typically used for representing hexadecimal digits. A word can vary in size depending on the computer architecture, often being 16, 32, or 64 bits, and indicates the amount of data a processor can handle at one time. A bit, short for binary digit, is the smallest unit of data and can represent a value of 0 or 1. In this context, the byte's role as a standard unit composed of 8 bits is important for understanding data structuring and manipulation in computing.