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

Using isolated test devices, IBM has determined that coherence is running between one to two milliseconds, and up to four milliseconds in some cases. —Paul Smith-Goodson, Forbes.com, 10 June 2025

Big-screen gamers can look forward to a 240-Hz refresh rate (when the resolution is bumped down to Full HD), an auto latency mode that can get input lag down to 12 milliseconds, and motion compensation technology. —New Atlas, 5 June 2025

Musk posted the timeline when talking about his ongoing effort to reduce Starlink latency to under 20 milliseconds. —Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 2 June 2025

Your average lightning strike lasts about a millisecond. —Bill Chappell, NPR, 11 Apr. 2025

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