A millisecond (from milli- and second; symbol: ms) is a thousandth (10−3 or 1/1,000) of a second. milliseconds (a hundredth of a second) are called a centisecond, commonly seen on many stopwatches but often mistakenly referred to as milliseconds.100 milliseconds (one tenth of a second) are called a decisecond.To help compare orders of magnitude of different times, this page lists times between 10−3 seconds and 100 seconds (1 millisecond and one second). See also times of other orders of magnitude.