Latency is the delay between an action and its effect, such as the time it takes for data to travel across a network or for a response to appear.
From Latin *latens*, the present participle of *latere*, meaning to lie hidden, plus the suffix *-cy* to form a noun. It originally referred to things that exist but are not yet visible or active.
In computers, *latency* is time you can feel but not see—the hidden pause between click and response. The older sense of ‘hiddenness’ survives in ideas like *latent talent*: something real that hasn’t shown itself yet.
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