Using words containing sixteen bITS. This adjective often refers to the number of bITS used internally by a computer' s CPU. E.g. "The Intel 8086 is a sixteen bit processor". ITS external data bus or address bus may be narrower. The term may also refer to the size of an instruction in the computer' s instruction set or to any other item of data. See also 16-bit application. (1996-05-13)