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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
Quant firms react in milliseconds.
—
Richard Torrenzano, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2025
Previous techniques relied on laser pulses lasting milliseconds.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 6 Oct. 2025
The 100-Tesla field, which is about 2 million times as strong as Earth’s magnetic field, can be turned on for 15 milliseconds just once an hour.
—IEEE Spectrum, 2 Oct. 2025
The former will, before a collision, pull passengers back into the best position to absorb the impact of a crash by tightening the belt, while the latter — which activates milliseconds after a collision occurs — allows the seat belt to gently unspool to relieve the force on that person’s chest.
—Jackie Charniga, USA Today, 29 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
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Richard Torrenzano, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2025
Previous techniques relied on laser pulses lasting milliseconds.
—Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 6 Oct. 2025
The 100-Tesla field, which is about 2 million times as strong as Earth’s magnetic field, can be turned on for 15 milliseconds just once an hour.
—IEEE Spectrum, 2 Oct. 2025
The former will, before a collision, pull passengers back into the best position to absorb the impact of a crash by tightening the belt, while the latter — which activates milliseconds after a collision occurs — allows the seat belt to gently unspool to relieve the force on that person’s chest.
—Jackie Charniga, USA Today, 29 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
Cite this Entry
“Millisecond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/millisecond. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids 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
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