JIFFY
What does "JIFFY" mean?
A very short moment of time; an instant.
Meanings
- A brief moment, especially in the phrase 'in a jiffy'. Hang on, I'll be back in a jiffy. informal
- In physics and computing, a defined small unit of time (varying by field, sometimes the time light travels one centimetre). In some physics texts a jiffy is the time light takes to cross a centimetre. technical
Did you know?
- A 'jiffy' is a real scientific unit, not just a figure of speech: chemist Gilbert N. Lewis defined one as the time light takes to travel a single centimetre - about 33.4 trillionths of a second.
Word origin
Of unknown origin, recorded from the late 1700s in the sense of 'a moment'; possibly thieves' slang. Later borrowed by physicists as a playful name for a precise tiny interval.
Remember it
JIFFY is quick and snappy to say - by the time you've finished the word, the jiffy's nearly gone.
A little poem
She said 'one jiffy' - light had crossed a hair,
and crossed it back again, before her hand was there.
couplet
Wordplay
- I told my friend a jiffy was a real unit of time. He said he'd believe it in a second. Close - he was off by billions.
What it teaches
Even 'instantly' has a length; measure anything closely enough and the blink turns out to have rooms inside it.
Quick facts
What does JIFFY mean?
A very short moment of time; an instant.
Is JIFFY a valid word?
Yes — JIFFY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is JIFFY?
JIFFY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does JIFFY come from?
Of unknown origin, recorded from the late 1700s in the sense of 'a moment'; possibly thieves' slang. Later borrowed by physicists as a playful name for a precise tiny interval.
What can JIFFY teach us?
Even 'instantly' has a length; measure anything closely enough and the blink turns out to have rooms inside it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.