How to Use leap second in a Sentence

leap second

noun
  • But the prospect of the first negative leap second poses an even greater risk.
    — Harriet Marsden, TheWeek, 13 Oct. 2026
  • To date, all adjustments to time have involved adding a leap second.
    — Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
  • But unlike leap years, leap seconds are not predictable in advance.
    — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 24 Mar. 2017
  • To solve this issue, timekeepers use what’s called a leap second.
    — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Every few years, a leap second was added to the world clock to prevent the two from drifting too far apart.
    — Muskan Bhatia, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The leap second was a valiant first attempt, but ultimately a flawed one.
    — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Some tech companies think a negative leap second would turn the world upside down.
    — Rahul Rao, Popular Science, 20 Feb. 2023
  • As opposed to leap years, which have an extra day added, a negative leap second would mean clocks skip one second.
    — Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 3 Aug. 2022
  • This is unlikely to ever be used, since there has never been a negative leap second.
    — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, 19 July 2018
  • This minuscule change in time could introduce the need for a negative leap second.
    — Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 1 Aug. 2022
  • But Levine doesn't think a negative leap second will really be needed.
    — CBS News, 27 Mar. 2024
  • To avoid negative leap seconds, scientists agreed to expand the leap-second window to a leap hour.
    — Muskan Bhatia, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Since the first leap second was added in 1972, scientists have added leap seconds every few years.
    — Kate Golembiewski, Discover Magazine, 20 Dec. 2021
  • To avoid this Google added a millisecond of time to their servers with each update so they were caught up with the new time when the leap second occurred.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2015
  • Fifty years ago, those qualities made inserting the leap second difficult.
    — Alanna Mitchell, New York Times, 14 Nov. 2022
  • This time, Mendoza crushed a hard line drive over a leaping second baseman Brandt Broussard.
    — Brody Miller, nola.com, 9 June 2019
  • With the reversal of that trend in the past years, the last time a positive leap second was added was on the last day of 2016.
    — Christine Mui, Fortune, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The last leap second was positive and used at the end of December 2016.
    — Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 20 June 2025
  • Few computer programs are written to allow for a negative leap second.
    — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 15 Oct. 2024
  • In 2016 Earth’s rotation started speeding up, so leap seconds have not been added since then.
    — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 8 July 2026
  • Like my wife, the world’s timekeepers have been forced to adjust their clocks, adding thirty-seven leap seconds since 1972.
    — Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2024
  • In the past 23 years, scientists have added only four leap seconds, according to Agnew.
    — Bill Chappell, NPR, 30 Mar. 2024
  • The last leap second, in 2012, wreaked havoc on popular websites with clocks synced to standard civil time.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2015
  • The end of the leap second Adding a second to clocks every so often can disrupt high-precision computer systems.
    — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2026
  • This endeavor is not easy, and these companies are strongly advocating for abolishing the leap second.
    — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Ryan Solberg's single got past a leaping second baseman to move Villarreal over from first, but a pop out to center ended the threat.
    — Justin Maskulinski, Houston Chronicle, 1 June 2018
  • Recent projections suggest that the need for a negative leap second is likely to hit before 2035.
    — Emma Gometz, Scientific American, 8 July 2026
  • If Earth’s spin rate continues to slightly increase, eventually officials won’t need to add leap seconds anymore.
    — Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Mar. 2024
  • The phenomenon of the leap second, which is designed to control for unpredictable variations in the Earth's rotation.
    — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, 24 Jan. 2018
  • Leap seconds have been added in the past; first leap second was added was in 1972, and they're typically added in June or December.
    — Sarah Raza, Detroit Free Press, 3 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'leap second.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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