wait-free
|wait-free|
/ˌweɪtˈfriː/
no waiting
Etymology
'wait-free' originates from English, specifically the words 'wait' and 'free', where 'wait' meant 'to remain in expectation' and 'free' meant 'not subject to or constrained by'.
'wait' derives from Middle English 'waiten' (from Old North French/Frankish roots) and 'free' from Old English 'frēo'; the compound 'wait-free' was coined in 20th-century computer science literature to mean 'free from waiting'.
Initially it meant simply 'not having to wait', but in concurrency theory it evolved into the precise technical meaning that each operation completes in a bounded number of steps regardless of other threads.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
describing a concurrency property of an algorithm or data structure that guarantees every thread (or process) completes its operation in a finite number of its own steps, regardless of the execution of other threads.
A wait-free implementation ensures that every thread finishes its operation in a bounded number of steps even if other threads are paused.
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Antonyms
Last updated: 2026/01/09 21:28