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Blink of an eye: "nanosecond" vs "millisecond" in the world of seconds

Reviewed and edited by Anwar Kareem 12/10/2024, 13:12
English.me team member
Nanosecond and millisecond. What's the difference?

What is similar?

Both "nanosecond" and "millisecond" are units of time. They are used to measure extremely short durations and are part of the metric system, where "nano" and "milli" are prefixes indicating the scale of each unit.

What is different?

A nanosecond is one billionth (1/1,000,000,000) of a second, while a millisecond is one thousandth (1/1,000) of a second. Thus, a millisecond is a larger unit of time compared to a nanosecond.

Which one is more common?

Internet search results for nanosecond) and millisecond

Examples of usage

Nanosecond
  • The processor speed was measured in nanoseconds.
  • It takes a few nanoseconds for the signal to be transmitted.
  • Quantum computing has operations that occur in nanoseconds.
Millisecond
  • The webpage loaded in under a millisecond.
  • Response time for the server is a few milliseconds.
  • The sound echoed back in a matter of milliseconds.