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

Pair that with agentic AI that reads real-time traffic, weather and context and then autonomously bids and serves the highest-value ad creative in milliseconds. —Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026

Probably get a return call from PS in milliseconds. —Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 31 May 2026

When the radar or the EO/IR sensor detects an inbound projectile, the system calculates intercept geometry and fires a countermeasure either a hard-kill interceptor or a soft-kill electronic jammer, depending on system type within milliseconds. —Aditya Jadhav, Interesting Engineering, 28 May 2026

The whole process takes less than 200 milliseconds. —Pragati Awasthi, The Conversation, 26 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