latency — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Concealment; the state of being latent; the state of being hidden.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

2. Dormancy; the state of being inactive.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

3. A delay, an interval between the initiation of something and the occurrence.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   network latency

4. The time delay between a request for data or action and the beginning of the response or execution, often measured to assess system performance.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

5. The delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   period of latency

   The disease has a long period of latency.

6. A stage in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of the psychosexual development of children where children become asexual until their sexual desires come back at puberty.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

Noun

1. (computer science) the time it takes for a specific block of data on a data track to rotate around to the read/write head

   Synonyms

   rotational latency

   Broader terms

   time intervalinterval

2. the time that elapses between a stimulus and the response to it

   Synonyms

   reaction timeresponse timelatent period

   Broader terms

   time intervalinterval

3. the state of being not yet evident or active

   Broader terms

   potentialpotentialitypotency