How to Use time lag in a Sentence

time lag

noun
  • There's a time lag between when you see a stop sign and when your foot steps on the brake.
  • The economy reacts with a time lag of about one year, plus or minus.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2021
  • The steering is loose and the brakes only work with an unpredictable time lag.
    — WSJ, 1 May 2022
  • The time lag gives more time for confidence and complacency to build.
    — Justin Lahart, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2017
  • But with a time lag of at least half a decade, the question is whether Africa is bound to be trailing behind.
    — Wim Delva, Quartz Africa, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Beslik also said the time lag in the revelations was alarming.
    — Kati Pohjanpalo, Bloomberg.com, 21 Mar. 2018
  • On the economic side, port operations are subject to a time lag.
    — John Hammontree | [email protected], al, 30 Mar. 2020
  • The 24-hour time lag for results to come in further complicates the picture.
    — Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 4 Oct. 2020
  • Paint, stickers, and toys that glow in the dark after a period of exposure to light exploit this time lag.
    — Tracy H. Schloemer, IEEE Spectrum, 19 Sep. 2023
  • However, the time lag also means that audiences know who’s won what via social media.
    — K.j. Yossman, Variety, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Once that average time lag is assessed, the true lethality rate can be computed.
    — Robert Zubrin, National Review, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Satellite data is available consistently but has a time lag.
    — Monica Sanders, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026
  • The chicken was a bit of a victim to delivery time lag but retained most of its satisfying crunch.
    — Anna Luisa Rodriguez, Washington Post, 19 Apr. 2023
  • The time lag was greater than in the pandemic’s early months, when deaths followed infections more closely.
    — Derek Hawkins, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Aug. 2020
  • There is also the question of a reporting time lag — the fact that victims often don’t muster the courage to come forward for years.
    — Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post, 13 Dec. 2019
  • Since there was no time lag, the researchers argued that so fast a response had to be because the interior was liquid.
    — New Atlas, 18 Dec. 2025
  • This followed a development in Europe, though with the usual time lag.
    — John Lukacs, Harper's magazine, 20 Jan. 2020
  • Inflation responds to monetary policy with a long time lag, on the order of two years.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 22 Sep. 2021
  • And the four-month time lag between these molecular twins raises a whole other set of complications.
    — Washington Post, 30 Nov. 2021
  • The usual time lag between changes in monetary policy and inflation is about two years.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Because of the time lag, the Fed may decide to stomp down harder on the brakes, triggering a recession.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2021
  • While there can be a time lag in the identification of group outbreaks, the numbers appear to be declining.
    — Jeremy Olson, Star Tribune, 17 May 2021
  • The time lag in the mindset shift towards a culture of access could also slow the uptake of using open-source data and mapping tools.
    — Amy Nguyen, Forbes, 13 May 2021
  • The time lag was due to several factors, such as spiraling budgetary costs, but also about finding the right story.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Those still don't include the two in the Houston area announced last week because of the time lag before they are reported to the state.
    — Todd Ackerman, Houston Chronicle, 2 Mar. 2018
  • First, there is a time lag between the companies’ statements and the data captured in the department’s jobs report.
    — Sarah Chaney Cambon, WSJ, 4 Nov. 2022
  • The time lag breaks momentum, and people who are unfamiliar with design begin to settle.
    — Nia Bowers, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Most of the indicators used to gauge the health of the service industry are released with considerable time lags.
    — Edoardo Campanella, Foreign Affairs, 29 Feb. 2016
  • The device works by comparing the time lag between two beams of light traveling through the fiber optic cable in the spiraling coils and back.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 24 Apr. 2026
  • There will be a notable time lag between receiving the machines and becoming productive.
    — Dr. Jonathan Reichental, Forbes.com, 10 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'time lag.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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