Measuring statement runtime?

I've got a particular sql statement I'm trying to work out that seems to be taking far too long to run. I've been told that there's supposed to be some kind of timing command to record how long a statement runs for, but I'm having trouble figuring it out. The textbook I'm working with, PostgreSQL (Second Edition) seems to be indicating a command called 'timer' but that has, so far, always thrown an error on the 't'. A search for both 'timer' and 'timing' on Postgresql.org brings up a number of results, but they all appear to have something to do with 'time' and timestamps rather than what I am attempting to find out.

What is the command I should be looking for to measure the runtime on my statements?

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