buffering

noun

The act of using a buffer, such as temporarily storing data before it is played or processed.

Example sentence

“Constant buffering made the online movie almost impossible to watch.”

Most people know it as the word on screen when a video stalls; it has become shorthand for any frustrating wait.

Related words

cacheA quick-access temporary store that keeps recently or often-used data so it does not have to be fetched again from a slower source.latencyThe delay between starting something and the moment it actually happens.cookieA small, flat, sweet baked treat that may be crunchy or soft.bandwidthHow quickly data can travel through a digital connection, usually counted in bits per second.bookmarkA thin piece of paper, fabric, or other material placed between pages to keep your spot in a book.terabyteA unit of digital information equal to a trillion bytes, or one thousand gigabytes.