microsecond

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UK/ˈmaɪ.kɹəʊˌsɛk.ənd/

noun

An SI unit of time equal to 10⁻⁶ seconds. Symbol: μs

“Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond”

UncommonScrabble 18

Meanings

nounmicrosecond (plural microseconds)

plural microseconds

  1. metrologyAn SI unit of time equal to 10⁻⁶ seconds. Symbol: μs

    Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond

    5 more examples

    Holonyms: millisecond < centisecond < decisecond < second < decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond

    He'd be on her ass in a microsecond, revoke her letters testamentary, they'd call her names, proclaim her through all Orange County as a redistributionist and pinko, slip the old man from Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus in as administrator de bonis non and so much baby for code, constellations, shadow-legatees.

    1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 6, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 136

    The data word processor 606 handles the in-flow and out-flow of byte-oriented input/output data and interleaved signals at a rate of, for example, 500 kilobytes per second. Instruction processing rates of four to eight per microsecond are required for such a data flow.

    1969, Harold R. Dell, HIGH-DENSITY PERMANENT DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, US Patent 3638185

    The hemifused intermediate state dominates on the microsecond time scale, with a decay t_(1/2) of 6.3 μs. […] On the submillisecond time scale, long-lived hemifusion intermediates dominate; this population decays over a time scale of several microseconds (t_(1/2) = 6.3 μs) to yield fully fused vesicles.

    2006 August 8, Peter M Kasson et al., “Ensemble molecular dynamics yields submillisecond kinetics and intermediates of membrane fusion”, in PNAS, volume 103, number 32, →DOI, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2025

    O₂^(•−) and OH^• are highly unstable (half-life at the level of microseconds and nanoseconds, respectively) and cannot cross membrane, while H₂O₂, though not a free radical but a ROS, is relatively stable (half-life around 1 ms) (Møller et al. 2007) and can cross membranes through aquaporins.

    2015, Rup Kumar Kar, “ROS Signaling: Relevance with Site of Production and Metabolism of ROS”, in Dharmendra K. Gupta, José M. Palma, Francisco J. Corpas, editors, Reactive Oxygen Species and Oxidative Damage in Plants Under Stress, Springer, →ISBN, page 117

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-der.?
  2. Ancient Greekμῑκρός (mīkrós)
  3. Ancient Greekμῑκρο- (mīkro-)
  4. Englishmicro-
  5. Old Frenchseconde
  6. Middle Englishsecunde
  7. Englishsecond
  8. Englishmicrosecond

From micro- + second.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 微秒
  • 微秒 (wēimiǎo)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Czech mikrosekunda
  • mikrosekundaunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Danish mikrosekund
  • mikrosekundunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Dutch microseconde
  • microsecondeunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Finnish mikrosekunti
  • mikrosekuntiunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
French microseconde
  • microsecondeunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Greek μικροδευτερόλεπτο
  • μικροδευτερόλεπτο (mikrodefterólepto)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Hebrew מיקרושניה
  • מיקרושניה (mikroshneeya)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Hungarian mikroszekundum
  • mikroszekundumunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Icelandic míkrósekúnda
  • míkrósekúndaunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Italian microsecondo
  • microsecondounit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Japanese マイクロ秒
  • マイクロ秒 (maikuro byō)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Lithuanian mikrosekundė
  • mikrosekundėunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Norwegian Bokmål mikrosekund
  • mikrosekundunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Portuguese microssegundo
  • microssegundounit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Russian микросеку́нда
  • микросеку́нда (mikrosekúnda)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Slovak mikrosekunda
  • mikrosekundaunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Spanish microsegundo
  • microsegundounit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Swedish mikrosekund
  • mikrosekundunit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Ukrainian мікросеку́нда
  • мікросеку́нда (mikrosekúnda)unit of time equal to 10−6 seconds
Cite this entry
APA

microsecond. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microsecond

MLA

“microsecond.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microsecond. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “microsecond,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microsecond.

Source: microsecond on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.