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

Several of them were used to fire at precise milliseconds to trigger the explosion and launch the spacecraft. —CBS News, 29 Apr. 2026

Quijano's team was able to track the orbits of the 15 binary systems to millisecond accuracy. —Keith Cooper, Space.com, 28 Apr. 2026

For just a few tens of milliseconds, the ice seemed to lose its structure, dissolving into a mess of molecules before transitioning to its next phase. —Shalma Wegsman, Quanta Magazine, 27 Apr. 2026

Every millisecond of the track is imprinted with an effect, and yet the mix has miles of space. —Jayson Greene, Pitchfork, 25 Apr. 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