Definition of Octet (computing)

In France, French Canada and Romania, the word octet usually means byte; a megabyte (MB) is called a megaoctet in France, Romania and also French Canada. Bit and Byte are homophones in the French language.

Octet, with the only exception noted below, always refers to an entity having exactly eight bits. As such, it is often used where the term byte might be ambiguous. For that reason, computer networking standards almost exclusively use octet.