Word.ws English Dictionary

leap second

leap second noun: a second of time added to the year occasionally to compensate for variation in the rate of Earth's rotation relative to the absolute standards of time.

Noun

leap second (plural leap seconds)

  1. A second of time added to the year occasionally to compensate for variation in the rate of Earth's rotation relative to the absolute standards of time.

Forms of leap second

pluralleap seconds

Origin of leap second

1971; derived from the terminology for leap day/leap year.

Questions about leap second

What does leap second mean?
Leap second means a second of time added to the year occasionally to compensate for variation in the rate of Earth's rotation relative to the absolute standards of time.
What part of speech is leap second?
Leap second is a noun.
What is the plural of leap second?
The plural of leap second is leap seconds.

Words near leap second in the dictionary

  1. leap into action
  2. leap month
  3. leap months
  4. leap of faith
  5. leap out
  6. leap second
  7. leap seconds
  8. leap smear
  9. leap smearing
  10. leap through hoops
  11. leap to mind

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leap second (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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