JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<span>test</span>
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CSS

span.highlighted {
    color: red;
}

JavaScript

// prepares a closure function to handle affected elements in chunks of n
function updatePartial(elems, chunksize) {
  var current = 0;
  return function() {
    // changes n elements in a loop
    for (var i=0; i<chunksize; i++) {
      jQuery(elems[current+i]).addClass('highlighted');
    }
    current += chunksize;
    // calls itself again after a short break
    if (current < elems.length) setTimeout(arguments.callee, 100);
  }
}

// aquire and execute the closure function
updatePartial(jQuery("span").get(), 1)();