latency

/ˈleɪ.tən.si/noun

The delay between starting something and the moment it actually happens.

Example sentence

“Online gamers complain quickly when the network latency goes up.”

Gamers and network engineers use it constantly; in their world low latency is good, and 'lag' is the felt result of high latency.

Related words

bufferingThe act of using a buffer, such as temporarily storing data before it is played or processed.bandwidthHow quickly data can travel through a digital connection, usually counted in bits per second.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.terabyteA unit of digital information equal to a trillion bytes, or one thousand gigabytes.cookieA small, flat, sweet baked treat that may be crunchy or soft.gigabyteA unit of computer data equal to one billion bytes, or 1,000 megabytes.