Latency

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Latent can mean "hidden", "presently inactive" or "potentially existing but not yet realized". In specific contexts, it can mean:

• Latent heat, the amount of energy released or absorbed by a substance during a change of phase
• Latent geologic fault
• Latent medical condition, a condition that is present but not active or causing symptoms.
• Latent bud, in some plants a bud that grows in favourable conditions but remains a bud until such conditions appear.
• Virus latency, the "quiet" or dormant stage of life of a virus, when it does little but maintain its genome, until favourable conditions for the lytic phase appear, when it starts to replicate.
• Latent fingerprint, the identifiable impression made by a finger, which is not immediately available (for example, because it is on a difficult surface such as skin) but can be made available ("developed") using some appropriate technique.
• Latent Recordings, a record label

Latency can mean:

• Latency (engineering), a time delay between the moment something is initiated and the moment its first effect begins.
• Latency (audio), the time delay in digital audio systems due to analog to digital conversions, processing and conversion back to analog.
• Memory latency and RAM latency, the amount of time a computer needs to wait to get data from RAM.
• Input lag, the latency between using an input device and the result being displayed.
• Communication lag or latency, the time taken for a packet of data to be sent by an application, travel and be received by another application.
• Incubation period, the time between exposure to a pathogenic organism, or chemical or radiation, and when symptoms and signs are first apparent.
• Latency in child sexuality, a psychoanalytic phase, extending from roughly age 7 to 12, during which sexuality is repressed or sublimated (now more commonly called "middle childhood" and "prepubescence").
• Clinical latency
• Dormancy

An example of a virus that is Latent in many people for long periods of time is Mononucleosis.

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