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

As a result, the system can respond to rapid changes in electricity demand within milliseconds. — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026

Additionally, historical LDEs reportedly exhibited delays ranging from 3 to 30 seconds, whereas MDEs generally produce delays of only a few hundred milliseconds. — Micah Hanks, Space.com, 27 Oct. 2026

Measured from the moment that the dots appeared to the moment the bird’s head started turning to peck at the button, the crows averaged 235 milliseconds. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 23 Oct. 2026

As a gamer, one of my favorite features here is the one-millisecond response time. — Cameron Faulkner, The Verge, 21 Oct. 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