noun · academic

latency

/ˈlætənsi/LAT·en·cy

Band 7+speakingtask2

the time delay between a request and the response in a network or system

Examples

High latency made the video call freeze for several seconds.

Online gamers care a lot about latency because it affects reaction time.

The test measured end-to-end latency in milliseconds.

Band 8 sentence

When delivering live lectures online, instructors must minimise latency to keep interaction natural.

Collocations

  • low latency
  • high latency
  • measure latency

Word family

latency noun

Common mistakes

speedlatency

ping (as a general term)latency / response time

Say it for a higher band

5speed6delay7+latency

Synonyms

delay

lag

Easily confused

lag

Players complained about lag more than the precise latency statistics.

Related words

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In Technology & Internet

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