jiffies

Very short intervals

Jiffies is the plural of jiffy, an indefinitely short period of time: I'll be back in a couple of jiffies.

In computing, a jiffy has a precise technical meaning—the duration of one tick of the system timer, typically a few milliseconds.

The casual sense dominates everyday speech: Give me two jiffies to finish this.

duration

moment

Brief period of time

  • instantBriefest unit of time
  • secondUnit smaller than minute
  • tickParasitic eight-legged pest

flash · trice · heartbeat · blink · wink · split-second · twinkling · eyeblink · shake · nanosecond

computing

clock cycle

Processor's basic time unit

scheduler · kernel · CPU time · time slice · hertz · Linux · system clock · timestamp · delay · interval

informal

sec

Slang for moment

  • moSlang for instant
  • tickParasitic eight-legged pest
  • minuteSixtieth of an hour

bit · moment · second · shortly · soon · quick · brief · hang on · be right back · wait

Opposites
time duration

jiffieseternities

Boundless time periods

eons · ages · forevers · lifetimes · aeons

Family

jiffy, jiff, jiffs

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Everyday, not technical · Rated G