Standard Lemma guide

latency

noun · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK, US: /ˈleɪ.tən.si/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: L EY1 T AH0 N S IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Dormancy; the state of being inactive.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, electronics, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

Examples

  • network latency

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Qualifier: artificial intelligence

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, sciences

Examples

  • period of latency
  • The disease has a long period of latency.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

the state of being not yet evident or active

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: potential, potentiality, potency

8

noun

Meaning 8

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: reaction time, response time, latent period

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: time interval, interval

9

noun

Meaning 9

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rotational latency

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: time interval, interval

History

Etymology

From latent + -ency.

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Japanese: 潜在 (senzai) — hiddenness
  • Japanese: 秘匿 (hitoku) — hiddenness
  • Russian: скрытость (skrytostʹ) — hiddenness
  • Russian: незаметность (nezametnostʹ) — hiddenness
  • Japanese: 休眠 (kyūmin) — inactivity, dormancy
  • Russian: латентное состояние (latentnoje sostojanije) — inactivity, dormancy
  • Russian: скрытая форма — inactivity, dormancy
  • Bulgarian: закъснение (zakǎsnenie) — delay
  • Chinese Mandarin: 延遲 /延迟 (yánchí) — delay
  • Czech: latence — delay
  • Czech: zpoždění — delay
  • Dutch: wachttijd — delay
  • Dutch: vertraging — delay
  • Finnish: latenssi — delay
  • Finnish: viive — delay
  • French: latence — delay
  • Galician: latencia — delay
  • German: Latenz — delay
  • German: Latenzzeit — delay
  • German: Verborgenheit — delay
  • German: Wartezeit — delay
  • German: Verzögerung — delay
  • Greek: υστέρηση (ystérisi) — delay
  • Greek: καθυστέρηση (kathystérisi) — delay
  • Icelandic: biðtími — delay
  • Italian: latenza — delay
  • Japanese: 遅延 (chien) — delay
  • Japanese: レイテンシ (reitenshi) — delay
  • Japanese: レイテンシー (reitenshī) — delay
  • Japanese: レーテンシー (rētenshī) — delay
  • Latin: latēntia — delay
  • Persian: نهفتگی — delay
  • Polish: latencja — delay
  • Portuguese: latência — delay
  • Romanian: latență — delay
  • Russian: заде́ржка (zadéržka) — delay
  • Slovak: latencia — delay
  • Slovak: oneskorenie — delay
  • Spanish: latencia — delay
  • Turkish: gecikme — delay
  • Turkish: gizlilik — delay
  • Turkish: saklılık — delay
  • Galician: latencia — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • German: Latenzmechanismus — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • German: Latenz — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • German: Verzögerung — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Hungarian: lappangás — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Hungarian: lappangási idő — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Japanese: 潜伏 (sempuku) — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Portuguese: latência — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Spanish: latencia — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
  • Turkish: yataklık süresi — delay between a stimulus and the response in an organism
Real reading context

latency in complete knowledge articles