Latency

Latency generally refers to a period of time in a delay. It has specific meanings in several scientific fields. In engineering, latency refers to a delay imposed by a process, such as digital-analog conversion, or propagation through a wire or bus. It is another way of saying how long something takes to complete. The term is commonly used in computers. It is measured either in absolute time, or relative to processor or bus cycles. In medicine, latency can refer to the time of incubation for a virus, or the time it takes for a drug to take effect.