millisecond

noun

mil·​li·​sec·​ond ˈmi-lə-ˌse-kənd 

-kənt

: one thousandth of a second

Did you know?

A millisecond isn't long enough for the blink of an eye, but a few milliseconds may determine the winner of a swim race or a hundred-yard dash. With the ever-increasing speed of modern technology, even a millisecond has started to seem a little sluggish; computer operations are now measured in nanoseconds—that is, billionths of a second.

Examples of millisecond in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Prices are the effect of infinite actions and decisions taking place every millisecond all over the world. —John Tamny, Forbes.com, 24 May 2026

The underlying index for the new options will be the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, which updates with data from cryptocurrency exchanges every 200 milliseconds. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 24 May 2026

Four whole seconds in a sport where races are often decided by mere milliseconds. —New Atlas, 23 May 2026

The cast is primarily made of aluminum mixed with a much smaller amount of silicon and is forced into the megacast machine in roughly 90 milliseconds, Brodin says. —Kristin Shaw, ArsTechnica, 20 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

International Scientific Vocabulary

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for millisecond

• femtosecond
• microsecond
• nanosecond
• picosecond
• beckoned
• reckoned
• second
• seconde

Kids Definition

millisecond

noun

mil·​li·​sec·​ond ˈmil-ə-ˌsek-ənd 

also -ənt

: one thousandth of a second

Medical Definition

millisecond

noun

mil·​li·​sec·​ond ˈmil-ə-ˌsek-ənd, -ənt 

: one thousandth of a second

—abbreviation ms, msec