latency

American  

[leyt-n-see] / ˈleɪt n si /

noun

• latencies
  plural

1. the state of being latent.

2. latent period.

3. Computers. the period of delay when one component of a hardware system is waiting for an action to be executed by another component.

4. Digital Technology. the time required online or in a network for the one-way or round-trip transfer of data between two nodes.

5. Digital Technology. (in virtual reality and other types of simulation) the discrepancy between the time delay of stimulus and response in the simulation as compared to the real-world equivalent.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• latencies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of latency

First recorded in 1630–40; lat(ent) + -ency

Explanation

Latency is a noun referring to something inactive, dormant, or lying in wait. It’s the state of not being visibly active yet — like when you're hiding out and waiting to jump up and yell "Surprise!" Perhaps a little late, perhaps right on time, latency will wake up from its nap eventually. For a characteristic or skill to be in a period of latency, it does have to exist. So you should only use latency to describe your pitching ability if there is a fastball in you somewhere – otherwise, just admit you can’t pitch. If you’re in the lab, latency is also used to describe the period between a stimulus and a response.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

latency latencies

“You don’t always have to send those routine tasks to the bigger model, but the router will continuously balance quality, latency, and cost,” Briski said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

Compared to AMD’s fifth-generation Turin CPUs, Nvidia said Vera delivers up to 1.9 times faster agentic performance and six times better latency.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

“Arm’s core competency lies in latency and efficiency—which aligns well with hyperscaler needs,” Arcuri wrote.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

We measured download and upload speeds, as well as latency across multiple U.S. server locations and over Wi-Fi, LTE and 5G to simulate home and public usage.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

So does what is known as latency, the period of time that lapses between the moment one speaker stops talking and the moment the other speaker begins.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

“We are investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region,” AWS said on its website.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025

“As technologies and networks advance, with better bandwidth and lower latencies, mobile devices will be able to download even higher-quality content,” said Panayiotis Gabrielides, a senior official at the telecom company involved in the project.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 8, 2023

"Consumers will experience gigabits-per-second throughputs and single-millisecond latencies," according to Verizon.

From The Verge ● Jul. 11, 2016

In low earth orbit, with relatively low latencies, telerobotic systems can accomplish a great deal through direct manipulation.

From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2015

The blank verse of his two translated Aeneids, like all that written previous to Peele, gave little inkling of the latencies of the measure which was to become the cardinal one of English poetry.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various