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qubit

noun
/ˈkjuːbɪt/UK/ˈkjubɪt/US

Etymology

Blend of quantum + bit, a play on cubit (“historical unit of length”). Coined by American physicist Benjamin Schumacher in 1995.

  1. derived from *bʰeyd-✻ — “to split”
  2. inherited from *bitô✻
  3. inherited from bita — “bit; fragment; morsel”
  4. inherited from bitte
  5. compounded as qubit — “quantum + bit”

Definitions

  1. A quantum bit

    A quantum bit; the basic unit of quantum information described by a superposition of two states; a quantum bit in a quantum computer capable of being in a state of superposition; A binary qudit.

    • Quantum computing, on the other hand, is based on quantum bits, or qubits.
    • Each extra qubit in a quantum machine doubles the number of simultaneous operations it can perform.
    • Google’s Sycamore computer has all of 53 qubits to its name, as does a new IBM computer, installed online at the company’s Quantum Computation Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. System One, IBM’s black cube from tomorrow, only has 20 qubits.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for qubit. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA