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nanosecond

nanosecond

20 4.5
A unit of time equal to one billionth of a second
  • noun
  • /ˈnænəˌsɛkənd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : nanosegundo
  • For example, a clock on Mount Everest gains 80 nanoseconds per day relative to clocks at sea level.
  • nanosecond pulse
  • nanosecond voltage
  • 2 nanoseconds

And then I realized in a nanosecond that this guy's out.

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Examples

  • And then I realized in a nanosecond that this guy's out.

  • I have a philosophy that every moment, every precious nanosecond and moment is perfect.

  • You know we could do this in a nanosecond, right?

  • I have some things to tell you, so if you show up one nanosecond late...

  • My kids have certainly never for a nanosecond believed that animals could really talk.

    Blog text (12)
  • Roughly speaking, you know, computers are operating in the nanosecond time scale, right?

  • We sold that first pound in about five nanoseconds.

  • Since this change is caused by electric fields, it happens very quickly, in just about a nanosecond, and the brightness doesn't suffer.

  • The arachnid yanks the cricket below and replaces the roof in a nanosecond.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Computers process information in a nanosecond, allowing them to perform millions of calculations per second.

Synonyms

nano
vsnanosecond
  • Informal
3 5.5

A very short time equal to one billionth of a second

is the formal full term rather than the informal short form
nsec
vsnanosecond
  • Specialized
7.4

A unit of time equal to one billionth of a second

is the full term used instead of the abbreviation

How Long

second
  • Specialized
1.0
millisecond
26 2.5
microsecond
  • Specialized
11 3.6
nanosecond
  • Specialized
20 4.5
picosecond
  • Specialized
1 8.0
femtosecond
  • Specialized
1 9.7

Surface Forms

nanosecond singular
nanoseconds plural

Morphology

nanosecond = second (transparent) = nano + second

The meaning is directly compositional: 'nano-' means one billionth and 'second' is the time unit being scaled.

Etymology

The word nanosecond joins nano- and second; nano- comes from an old Greek word meaning 'dwarf' or 'very small', and second is the time unit you already know. So, a nanosecond is a very tiny part of a second — 'one billionth' of a second — which is why we use it to measure very fast things like electronics and light travel.