Latency

n. being hidden, being out of sight; latency stage (Psychology); retrieval time (Computers)

Latent can mean "hidden", "presently inactive" or "potentially existing but not yet realized". In specific contexts, it can mean:Latent heat, the amount of energy released or absorbed by a substance during a change of phaseLatent geologic faultLatent medical condition, a condition that is present but not active or causing symptoms.Latent bud, in some plants a bud that grows in favourable conditions but remains a bud until such conditions appear.Virus latency, the "quiet" or dormant stage of life of a virus, when it does little but maintain its genome, until favourable conditions for the lytic phase appear, when it starts to replicate.Latent fingerprint, the identifiable impression made by a finger, which is not immediately available (for example, because it is on a difficult surface such as skin) but can be made available ("developed") using some appropriate technique.Latent Recordings, a record label
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Noun
1. (computer science) the time it takes for a specific block of data on a data track to rotate around to the read/write head
(synonym) rotational latency
(hypernym) time interval, interval
(part-holonym) access time
(classification) computer science, computing
2. the time that elapses between a stimulus and the response to it
(synonym) reaction time, response time, latent period
(hypernym) time interval, interval
3. the state of being not yet evident or active
(hypernym) potential, potentiality, potency

(n.)
The state or quality of being latent.
  

<communications> 1. The time it takes for a packet to cross a network connection, from sender to receiver.
2. The period of time that a frame is held by a network device before it is forwarded.
Two of the most important parameters of a communications channel are its latency, which should be low, and its bandwidth, which should be high. Latency is particularly important for a synchronous protocol where each packet must be acknowledged before the next can be transmitted.
(2000-02-27)