Word for the Day Archive

kilo (lower-case) versus Kilo (upper-case)

• kilo - A standard prefix (abbreviated "k") representing 1000. For example, a 4 kiloHertz (kHz) sine wave has a frequency of 4,000 Hertz.
• Kilo - A standard prefix generally used in reference to computer equipment. Abbreviated "K", it was developed to represent the binary value of 2 to the 10th power (1024). Thus, 8 Kilobytes (Kb) of memory is 8 times 1024, or 8,192 bytes. Tecnically the upper case K represents the prefix Kibi (not Kilo), which is a more specific term that relates to these computer oriented values (2 to the 10th power, etc.), though it isn't commonly used.