millisecond

noun

mil·​li·​sec·​ond ˈmi-lə-ˌse-kənd 

-kənt

: one thousandth of a second

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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

Visa says its models examine more than 500 attributes of a transaction and return a risk score in milliseconds. — Satya Vandrangi, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2026

Neurons don’t respond instantaneously to incoming signals; their responses can depend on input received over the previous few hundred milliseconds. — Anirban Mukhopadhyay, Scientific American, 7 Sep. 2026

The Integrated Traction Management system allows to get easily ascend 45-degree slopes by monitoring all four wheels in real time, and responding in just 50 milliseconds to control motor speed. — New Atlas, 6 Sep. 2026

Trading firms began using low-latency (shorter delay) technology and co-locating servers inside exchange data centers, cutting trade execution times to milliseconds and making speed itself a competitive advantage. — Brian Lund, Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Sep. 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