latency

noun

Etymology: From latent + -ency.

1. Concealment; the state of being latent; the state of being hidden.
2. Dormancy; the state of being inactive.
3. A delay, an interval between the initiation of something and the occurrence.

   “network latency”

4. 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. 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.