Latency vs. Lag

By Muazma Batool — Updated on May 3, 2023

Difference Between Latency and Lag
◉Lag
To fail to keep up a pace; straggle
a hiker who lagged behind his companions on the trail.
◉Lag
To proceed or develop with comparative slowness
a nation that lags behind its neighbors in economic development.
◉Latency
The time interval between initiating a query, transmission, or process, and receiving or detecting the results, often given as an average value over a large number of events.
◉Lag
(Games) To determine the order of play by hitting or shooting a ball toward a mark, as in marbles or billiards, with the player whose ball stops closest to the mark going first.
◉Lag
To proceed or develop at a slower pace than (another)
"putting new money into sectors that have lagged the market" (Peter Lynch).
◉Latency
(electronics) A delay, an interval between the initiation of something and the occurrence.
◉Lag
(Sports) In golf, to hit (a putt) so that it stops a short way from the hole and can then be tapped in.
◉Latency
(medicine) The delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.
◉Latency
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.
◉Latency
The state or quality of being latent.
To simplify the discussion, I shall distinguish three degrees of this latency.
◉Latency
The time between a stimulus the appearance of the response; the time between any causal action and the first appearance of the effect. Called also latent period.
◉Lag
An interval between one event or phenomenon and another
"He wondered darkly at how great a lag there was between his thinking and his actions" (Thomas Wolfe).
◉Latency
The time between exposure to a carcinogen or other disease-causing agent and the appearance of the consequent disease.
◉Latency
(computer science) the time it takes for a specific block of data on a data track to rotate around to the read/write head
◉Lag
(countable) A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
◉Lag
(snooker) A method of deciding which player shall start. Both players simultaneously strike a cue ball from the baulk line to hit the top cushion and rebound down the table; the player whose ball finishes closest to the baulk cushion wins.
◉Lag
A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (engineering) one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, such as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or steam engine.
◉Lag
To cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material referring to a time lag effect in thermal transfer]].
◉Lag
The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.
◉Lag
The failing behind or retardation of one phenomenon with respect to another to which it is closely related; as, the lag of magnetization compared with the magnetizing force (hysteresis); the lag of the current in an alternating circuit behind the impressed electro-motive force which produced it.
◉Lag
lock up or confine, in or as in a jail;
The suspects were imprisoned without trial
the murderer was incarcerated for the rest of his life
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Muazma BatoolAs a content editor, Muazma Batool is not just a grammar guru but a creative mastermind who breathes life into every word. With an eagle eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, she transforms bland text into engaging content that captivates audiences and drives results.