latency period
Time before symptoms
The latency period is the time between exposure to something and its observable effect.
In medicine, it's the interval between infection and symptom onset: The latency period for HIV can be years.
In psychology, Freud's latency period describes the developmental stage between ages six and puberty when sexual impulses supposedly lie dormant.
More broadly, any delay between cause and effect: There's a latency period between policy changes and economic impact.
- dormantInactive but capable
- incubationDevelopment before emergence
- waitingRemaining in expectation
- ticking clockClock making sound
- hiddenKept out of sight
under the surface · delay · quiet · brewing · simmering · slow burn · time bomb · gestation · lag · pause · dormancy · repression · childhood · Freud · psychosexual · early childhood · symptom · exposure
latency periodoral stage
First psychosexual developmental period
anal stage · puberty · sexual awakening · adolescence · sexual maturity
latency, latent, latently, period, periods, periodic, periodical, periodically, periodicity