second
∞
1.0
- noun
- /ˈsɛkənd/
- Specialized
:
segundo
- Within seconds, all hell breaks loose.
- 30 seconds
- 10 seconds
- 5 seconds
What they want is value per second, not seconds of value.
- What they want is value per second, not seconds of value.
- And we have to do this thousands of times a a second throughout the year.
- So and we want to try to have the highest frames per second possible.
- Chemical reactions per second per second like I am.
Examples
-
The symbols in either condition were displayed for 20 seconds before the screen turned red.
Academic text (2012) -
They arrive about two seconds before the light does.
-
OK, OK, so give me two seconds to do this.
-
You have three seconds to tell me where you got it.
-
Two seconds on the clock.
-
I'll give you 10 seconds to hand over Earl Williams.
-
We probably got about 60 seconds until they mobilize.
-
Jorge was allowed to play with each item for 30-60 seconds before the assessment began.
Academic text (2013) -
Children listened to two prerecorded passages of 50 seconds and 68 seconds in length.
Academic text (2013) -
Please wait a second; I need to finish this message.
Synonyms
Idioms
- Informal
8
6.0
A person who has a less important role and helps someone more important
Compounds
21
2.8
A child of your parent's first cousin who shares your great-grandparents but not your grandparents
16
4.4
A player who stands near second base and catches or throws the ball to get runners out
6
6.0
A junior officer with the lowest rank in the Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps
- Specialized
6
3.0
Words that refer to the person or people you speak to, for example 'you'
5
6.3
A meeting of Catholic Church leaders from 1962 to 1965 that changed worship and encouraged talks with other Christian churches
4
4.1
A measure of speed that shows how many kilometers something moves in one second
- Specialized
4
7.0
Energy naturally spreads from hot places to cold ones, increasing disorder
2
4.3
A woman who cares for someone like a mother, often with or instead of their own mother
- Archaic
1
7.7
A period in old age when mental decline makes a person behave like a young child
- Specialized
1
6.8
An extra second added to clocks so they match how fast the Earth turns
- Specialized
1
2.8
A unit that shows how many small pieces of information called bits are sent every second
- Informal
1
5.3
A belief that food dropped on the floor for less than two seconds is still safe to eat
- Specialized
A measure of how many billion math calculations a computer does each second
- Specialized
A rule that you can extend any straight line without end in both directions
- Archaic
A unit equal to one thousand cycles per second, now called kilohertz
- Specialized
The distance light travels in one second in empty space, about 300,000 kilometers
- Archaic
A unit equal to one million cycles per second for measuring radio frequencies
- Specialized
A measure of how fast a computer does one million math calculations each second
- Specialized
A unit for measuring how fast a computer processor runs, equal to one million instructions per second
- Specialized
A rule that a force changes an object's motion more when the force is bigger or the object is lighter
A person who belongs to a Christian group that believes Christ will return soon
How Short
- Specialized
1
8.0
- Informal
3
5.5
- Specialized
11
3.6
26
2.5
- Specialized
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Etymology
Second as the unit of time comes from a Latin phrase pars minuta secunda, meaning 'the second small part' of an hour, where minute meant 'small part', so a second is the next small division after the minute.