This noun denotes slowness or sluggishness, the quality of being tardy or delayed. In 2 Peter 3:9, it addresses the perceived slowness of the Lord's promised return—what scoffers consider delay, God does not count as slowness but rather as patient forbearance. Classical usage applies to both literal physical slowness and sluggishness of character. The translations (Spanish tardanza, French retaining the Greek, German Verzögerung) emphasize delay or lateness, capturing the skeptics' complaint while the context redefines this apparent slowness as divine patience unwilling that any should perish.