response time

American  

noun

1. Psychology. the time consumed in making a response.

2. Computers. the time that elapses while waiting for a computer to respond to a command.

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response time British  

noun

1. computing the length of time taken by a system to respond to an instruction

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Etymology

Origin of response time

First recorded in 1955–60

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

response time

I realized that replying to complicated requests or problems in anger or haste was never smart, so I kept his rule to slow my response time down eight hours for future correspondence.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

For example, "when there's poor internet connection, response time will be very slow".

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

According to data recently released by the city in a public records request, the average response time for the department for a Priority 2 was more than two hours as recently as March.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

The speed with which that data moves between processors and memory chips governs the latency, or response time, for a query.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

Rapidity In a technology sense, rapidity includes the speed of operational planning, determining appropriate action, deployment, and employment all focused toward minimizing response time.

From Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid Dominance by James P. Wade

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