jiffy

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A fraction of time that has numerous interpretations depending on who uses it. It may refer to one computer clock cycle, one nanosecond, one millisecond or one AC power cycle. There may be others. See nanosecond.

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noun

A very brief time: crack, flash, instant, minute¹, moment, second¹, trice, twinkle, twinkling, wink. Informal jiff. Chiefly British tick. See big/small/amount, time.

1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. “The swapper runs every 6 jiffies” means that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second.

2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond wall time interval.

3. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use ‘jiffy’ to mean the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to one nanosecond. Other physicists use the term for the quantum-nechanical lower bound on meaningful time lengths,

4. Indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever. “I'll do it in a jiffy” means certainly not now and possibly never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread use of the word. Oppose nano. See also Real Soon Now.

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1) 1/100 of a second  2) one millisecond  3) approximately one nanosecond   4) indeterminate time from a few seconds to forever

For a list of words related to jiffy, see:

• Periods of Time - jiffy: Informal. brief amount of time

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See words rhyming with "jiffy."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Jiffy.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - øjeblik

idioms:

• in a jiffy    på et øjeblik, i løbet af nul komma fem, i et snuptag, en to tre

Nederlands (Dutch)
ogenblikje

Français (French)
n. - une minute, une seconde

idioms:

• in a jiffy    en moins de deux

Deutsch (German)
n. - Augenblick, Moment

idioms:

• in a jiffy    sofort, gleich

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - στιγμή, στιγμούλα

idioms:

• in a jiffy    στη στιγμή, στο άψε-σβήσε, αμέσως

Italiano (Italian)
momento

idioms:

• in a jiffy    in un batter d'occhio, subito

Português (Portuguese)
n. - instante (m) (coloq.)

idioms:

• in a jiffy    num instante (coloq.)

Русский (Russian)
мгновение

idioms:

• in a jiffy    в один момент

Español (Spanish)
n. - momento, instante, periquete, santiamén

idioms:

• in a jiffy    en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, en un santiamén

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ögonblick

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
瞬间, 一会儿

idioms:

• in a jiffy    马上

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 瞬間, 一會兒

idioms:

• in a jiffy    馬上

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 즉각, 잠시

idioms:

• in a jiffy    즉시

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 瞬間, ちょっとの間

idioms:

• in a jiffy    すぐに

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) لحظه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רגע‬

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