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
The good news is that these quantum states are relatively long-lived, for quantum events, lasting whole milliseconds: a long time at the quantum scale.
—
John Koetsier, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2025
Somehow, his body went crashing down onto the tracks and into a 10-inch trench just seconds, or even milliseconds, before the train went over him.
—Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2025
Players can also look forward to an input latency of just 6 milliseconds at the 240 Hz setting, which should be more than enough to meet the demands of quickfire sharpshooters.
—Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 31 Jan. 2025
In the 20th century, each day on Earth got longer by between 0.3 and 1.0 millisecond.
—The Atlantic Science Desk, The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
John Koetsier, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2025
Somehow, his body went crashing down onto the tracks and into a 10-inch trench just seconds, or even milliseconds, before the train went over him.
—Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2025
Players can also look forward to an input latency of just 6 milliseconds at the 240 Hz setting, which should be more than enough to meet the demands of quickfire sharpshooters.
—Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 31 Jan. 2025
In the 20th century, each day on Earth got longer by between 0.3 and 1.0 millisecond.
—The Atlantic Science Desk, The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
Cite this Entry
“Millisecond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/millisecond. Accessed 15 Mar. 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
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share