sec

«sec» in Mova's school dictionary: A very short time; short for "second": "wait a sec" — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a sec, secs) — informal; abbreviation sec (second, secretary, secant)

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal) A very short time; short for "second": "wait a sec". tree →

2) Abbreviation for second (of time): 30 sec. tree →

3) (maths, older pupils) Short for secant, a function of an angle. tree →

4) Abbreviation for secretary. tree →

5) Sec. is a short way of writing section, a numbered part of a book or law. tree →

sense in the lessons

In real speech: "hang on a sec", "back in a sec". In science and sport timing: "she ran 100 m in 15 sec". Phrases: just a sec, in a sec, hang on a sec.

examples

• Wait a sec, I'm coming! tree →
• Hang on a sec, I need my coat. tree →
• The runner finished in 12.5 sec. tree →
• I'll be back in a sec. tree →
• The video is 45 sec long. tree →
• Give me a sec to think. tree →
• Benfey, Pantschatantra, Einleitung, Sec.201). [Footnote: It occurs in the same chapter as the story of La Perrette, which has been traced, after Benfey, by Prof. tree →

note

Informal in speech: "a sec" is not an exact time, just a short wait. As a unit it is exact: 60 sec = 1 minute. The usual short form in science is "s" (10 s).

In the corpora

• "Two secs" and "Irish time" are not real times at all.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sec» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.