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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
In regulatory contexts where risk positions can change within milliseconds, this is a silent material deficiency.
—
Lev Yatsemyrskyi,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2026
Called the Lorimer Burst, after the team leader who discovered it, the flash was far more luminous than anything ever seen like it, and, still more astonishing, the entire event lasted only about 5 milliseconds.
—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
26 June 2026
Seltz’s system crawls hundreds of millions of pages a day, and returns results in under 200 milliseconds.
—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
24 June 2026
Measured that way, the older E Ink screens on Glider come in around 100 milliseconds.
—
IEEE Spectrum,
18 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
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Lev Yatsemyrskyi,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2026
Called the Lorimer Burst, after the team leader who discovered it, the flash was far more luminous than anything ever seen like it, and, still more astonishing, the entire event lasted only about 5 milliseconds.
—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
26 June 2026
Seltz’s system crawls hundreds of millions of pages a day, and returns results in under 200 milliseconds.
—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
24 June 2026
Measured that way, the older E Ink screens on Glider come in around 100 milliseconds.
—
IEEE Spectrum,
18 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for millisecond
Cite this Entry
“Millisecond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/millisecond. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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
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