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latency

LAY-tuhn-see /ˈleɪtənsi/

nounC1GREGMATCATTOEFL

technicalacademic

The delay or lag time between sending an instruction and receiving a response in a network connection.

Latency measures delay in milliseconds. Low latency is critical for real-time applications like online gaming and video calls.

The story behind the word. Derived from the Latin 'latere' (to lie hidden), latency originally described something dormant or unseen, like latent talent. Computer scientists adopted the term in the mid-20th century to describe the invisible pause—the hidden delay—between an input command and an output result.

Word relationships

lag: Lag is the informal everyday term for visible delay, while latency is the technical measurement of response time.
delay: Delay is a general term, whereas latency specifically describes operational response lag in technical systems.

responsiveness: Responsiveness indicates immediate action, whereas latency measures the delay before action occurs.

Commonly confused with

bandwidth: Latency is the delay in response time, while bandwidth is the volume of data carried at once.

Word family

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

Collocations

low latency
high latency
reduce latency
network latency

Example sentences

"Latency is the time it takes for a packet to travel from source to destination." Networking Performance (Computer Networks (Andrew S. Tanenbaum))
"High latency causes noticeable lag during competitive online multiplayer matches." Online Gaming

Memory hook

LATENCY comes from LATENT (hidden delay). It's the hidden pause before a screen responds. The delay time before action happens.

When not to use

Do not use latency to describe file size or data volume.

Fun facts

In high-frequency stock trading, financial firms pay millions of dollars to reduce network latency by just 1 or 2 milliseconds.