Meaning & use
megs
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“megs” is a form of “meg”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
nounpluralinformalcomputing
An informal short way of saying megabytes, used for talking about computer file sizes and storage space.
Grammar: Used as a plural noun; you say 'ten megs', not 'ten meg' in this sense.
Patterns
- a few megs of something
- hundreds of megs
- take up megs
That photo is only a couple of megs, so it will send quickly.
The game takes up more than fifty megs on your phone.
She cleared a few megs of space by deleting old messages.
nouncountableinformalcomputing
An informal word for one megabyte, or a unit of about a million bytes of computer data.
Grammar: Countable and usually singular when it means one unit: 'a meg of memory'.
Patterns
- a meg of something
- one meg
Add another meg of memory and the program will run better.
The download is about one meg, so it is fast.
nouncountableinformal
An informal short form of megaphone, a cone-shaped device that makes someone's voice sound louder.
Grammar: Countable; usually appears in the plural when people talk about the equipment a group uses.
Patterns
- use a meg
- hand someone a meg
The coach grabbed a meg and called the players over.
They handed her a meg so the crowd at the back could hear.
nounpluralinformaltechnical
An informal short form of megahertz, a unit for measuring radio or computer signal speed.
Grammar: Technical and rare; usually written in the plural, as in 'a processor running at 800 megs'.
Patterns
- run at a number of megs
The old radio tunes in at around 100 megs.
This cheap processor runs at just a few hundred megs.
Word forms
| singular | meg |
|---|
Common combinations
- a couple of megs
- The video is only a couple of megs, so it fits in an email.
- megs of storage
- You get twenty megs of storage with the free plan.
- take up megs
- Those old photos take up several megs on my laptop.
- free up megs
- I deleted some apps to free up a few megs.
- a few hundred megs
- The update is a few hundred megs, so use wi-fi.
Synonyms and how they differ
- megabytes
- The full, standard word; use it in writing or when you want to be precise, and keep 'megs' for casual speech.
- MB
- The written abbreviation of megabyte; it is the normal choice in labels, charts and technical text.
Word family
Commonly confused: megs or mags? megs or MBs?
megs vs mags
'Mags' is an informal plural of magazines, not of megabytes; the two sound similar but talk about very different things.
megs vs MBs
'MBs' is the written abbreviation for megabytes and looks similar, but it belongs in formal or technical writing rather than chat.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'megs' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Megs' is an informal plural noun for megabytes, so 'three megs' works as a quantity of data. The second option adds a clumsy phrase, the third treats 'megs' as a determiner before a noun, and the fourth uses it as a verb, which it is not.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “megs”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.