LATENCY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Latency

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lˈeɪtənsi/ Listen

noun

Latency n.

The state or quality of being latent. "To simplify the discussion, I shall distinguish three degrees of this latency."

The time between a stimulus the appearance of the response; the time between any causal action and the first appearance of the effect. Called also latent period.

Hence: (Med.) The time between exposure to a carcinogen or other disease-causing agent and the appearance of the consequent disease.

See images of 'Latency'

Etymology of 'Latency'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Latency" Quotes from Famous Books

... of sexual excitement in the new-born develop for a time, then undergo a progressive suppression in a period of partial or complete sexual latency. During this period, which is normally interrupted at about the third or fourth year, as result of organic evolutionary processes and the indispensable help of education, those mental forces are formed which appear later as inhibitions to the sexual instinct and narrow its course like ...

— Studies in Forensic Psychiatry • Bernard Glueck

... of events, grandfather," she said, looking out of the window with that drowsy latency of manner which discovered so much force behind it whenever the ...

— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy