Definition of "latency" in English

noun

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

2. Dormancy; the state of being inactive.

3. (electronics) A delay, an interval between the initiation of something and the occurrence.

   • network latency

4. (artificial intelligence) The time delay between a request for data or action and the beginning of the response or execution, often measured to assess system performance.

5. (medicine) The delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.

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

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.