nanosecond
noun
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The nonserious use of nanosecond is probably much more common than the proper technical use. In measurement terms such as nanosecond, nanogram, and nanometer, nano- means "billionth;" in other kinds of words, its meaning isn't quite so precise. In computers, the speed of reading and writing to random access memory (RAM) is measured in nanoseconds. By comparison, the speed of reading or writing to a hard drive or a CD-ROM player, or for information to travel over the Internet, is measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), which are a million times longer than nanoseconds.
Examples of nanosecond in a Sentence
David Fear, Rolling Stone, 13 Nov. 2025
The researchers noted that many advanced systems – such as electromagnetic warfare simulators and particle beam platforms – require immense bursts of energy delivered with extreme precision, often at the megawatt level within microsecond or even nanosecond intervals.
—Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 8 Nov. 2025
Brock Faber is a world-class skater, and Jonas Brodin has the feet to spin out of trouble in a nanosecond and skates backward better than a lot of guys skate forward.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 28 Oct. 2025
And yet it is always operated in this just in time, delivered to the nanosecond.
—Lauren Giella, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nanosecond
Cite this Entry
“Nanosecond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nanosecond. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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nanosecond
noun
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nanosecond
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