Languages › Spanish Units of Time in Spanish 'Unidades de tiempo' Share Flipboard Email Print Reloj solar en Zaragoza, España. (Sundial in Zaragoza, Spain.). Photo by Juandc.com; licensed via Creative Commons. Spanish Vocabulary History & Culture Pronunciation Writing Skills Grammar By Gerald Erichsen Gerald Erichsen Spanish Language Expert B.A., Seattle Pacific University Gerald Erichsen is a Spanish language expert who has created Spanish lessons for ThoughtCo since 1998. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on May 12, 2017 Need to know how to refer to a particular unit of time? Here are the most common ones in Spanish, listed from the shortest period of time to the longest: el nanosegundo — nanosecond el microsegundo — microsecond el milisegundo — millisecond el segundo — second el minuto — minute la hora — hour el día — day la semana, el septenario — week la quincena — fortnight, two weeks (The term sometimes refers to a 15-day period or a half-month.) el mes — month el semestre — six months, half-year (The term can also refer to an academic semester.) el año — year el lustro — five years el decenio, la década — 10 years, decade el siglo — century el milenio — millennium el cron — million years el eón — thousand million years, billion years in U.S. English (The term also can refer to an indefinitely long period of time.) In addition, Spanish has a number of units of time that are seldom used, or are used in specific contexts. For example, bimestre and trimestre, are two-month and three-month periods, respectively, with similar month groupings possible. Similarly, bienio and septenio are two- and seven-year periods of time, respectively, with other groupings possible. Featured Video Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Erichsen, Gerald. "Units of Time in Spanish." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/units-of-time-3079619. Erichsen, Gerald. (2020, August 27). Units of Time in Spanish. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/units-of-time-3079619 Erichsen, Gerald. "Units of Time in Spanish." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/units-of-time-3079619 (accessed July 3, 2022). copy citation