Most significant bit

In digital electronics, the most significant bit, most significant bit ( MSB), in its acronym in English, is the bit, which according to its position, has the greatest value. The MSB is sometimes referred to as the leftmost bit.

Referring to specific bits within a binary number, each bit is assigned a bit number, creating a range from zero to n (depending on the number of bits in the number).

By extension, the most significant bits (plural) are the high-order bits of the number closest to the msb, including the msb.

The MSB, written in upper case, can also stand for "Most Significant Byte" (Most Significant Byte). In a multi-bit numeric representation, the MSB is the high-order byte. Depending on whether the processor is little endian or big endian, the most significant byte will be stored, respectively, in the highest or lowest position in memory.