picosecondn.
/ˈpiːkəʊˌsɛk(ə)nd/, /ˈpʌɪkəʊˌsɛk(ə)nd/, U.S. /ˈpaɪkoʊˌsɛk(ə)nd/ A unit of time equal to one million-millionth of a second.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > a second > [noun] > specific part of
atomOE
third1595
millisecond1882
centisecond1905
microsecond1906
nanosecond1958
picosecond1962
1962 Statistician 12 264 The new floating point unit..will operate at pico-second (billionths of a second) speeds.
1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 60/2 The..circuits..have switching speeds of 350 pico~seconds.
1974 Nature 15 Mar. 222/2 A complete formalism now exists to do the complete physics of the first picoseconds of the big-bang origin of the universe.
1986 R. Dawkins Blind Watchmaker (BNC) 2 We are ill-equipped to comprehend the very small and the very large; things whose duration is measured in picoseconds or gigayears.
2002 New Scientist 23 Feb. 18/3 Top-of-the-range lasers that pulse every picosecond.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1962