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latency

LEY-tuhn-see /ˈleɪtənsi/

nounC1GRETOEFL

technicalprofessional

The delay or lag between the initiation of a command and the physical or digital execution of that command.

In networking and smart homes, latency is the split-second delay between you tapping a button on your phone and the lightbulb actually turning on.

The story behind the word. The word 'latency' comes from the Latin verb 'latere', which means 'to lie hidden'. For centuries, it was used in medicine and psychology to describe a disease or trait that was present but dormant (like a 'latent' talent). In the mid-20th century, computer scientists adopted it to describe the 'hidden' time data spends traveling through wires.

Word relationships

lag: Lag is an informal, everyday term for a visible delay, while latency is the precise technical measurement of that delay in milliseconds.
delay: Delay is a general term for any late arrival or slow progress, whereas latency specifically refers to the time taken for a data packet to travel across a network.

instantaneity: Instantaneity refers to the quality of happening immediately without any measurable delay.

Commonly confused with

bandwidth: Bandwidth is the capacity of a network pipe to carry data, while latency is the speed at which a single drop of water travels through that pipe.

Word family

latent (adjective): Existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden or concealed.

Collocations

low latency
network latency
reduce latency
latency delay

Example sentences

"Because the smart camera sends its feed to a distant cloud server, there is a noticeable three-second latency in the video stream." Smart home performance issues
"High latency can ruin online gaming, causing your character to lag behind the actions of other players." Online gaming experience

Memory hook

Think of 'late'. High latency means your data is running late, causing a lag in your system. Latency makes your data late.

When not to use

Do not confuse 'latency' with 'bandwidth'. Bandwidth is how much data can be sent at once, while latency is how fast a single piece of data travels to its destination.

Fun facts

In high-frequency financial trading, a latency of even one millisecond can cost trading firms millions of dollars, leading them to lay straight fiber-optic cables through mountains to shave off microseconds.