'A motherboard is the deck of a cruise ship'

London: Do you know your MP3 from your C-3PO, or your Blu-ray from your stingray? A study has discovered one in ten Americans think HTML - the name given to the code that makes up websites - is a sexually transmitted disease, while almost a third think a gigabyte is an insect.

The research was carried out to determine how knowledgeable people are when it comes to tech terms, and how important they think tech is.

Vouchercloud's study asked 2,392 men and women aged over 18 to identify the meanings of a variety of words.

These words were a mix of technical and non-technical terms, and each term was given with three multiple choice answers.

Participants were also asked how important knowing about technology is.

The term which stumped the most people (77 per cent) was SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the art of writing web content to make it appear higher up in search results.

Almost half of the participants who took part in the Vouchercloud study believed a motherboard used in the computers was the deck of a cruise ship.

Digital audio files, also known as MP3s, were mistaken from a robot from Star Wars by 23 per cent of participants, while 18 per cent though a Blu-ray - a high-definition optical disc successor to the DVD - was a marine animal.

Other terms that confused the participants included software, which was mistaken from comfortable clothing, and USB, which was mistaken from the acronym of a European country.

Almost fifty of the participants thought that a tablet computer was a device used to monitor medication.

Despite these gaps in knowledge, 61 per cent said it was ‘important' to have a good knowledge of technology today.

>> The study was carried out by discount and coupon site Vouchercloud
>> It asked 2,000 adults to identify a range of tech and non-tech terms
>> Almost 50 participants believed tablet computers monitor medication