deferred

Deferred is an adjective meaning delayed or postponed to a future time. It is used to indicate that an event, payment, or decision will occur or be recognized later rather than immediately.

Historically, deferred derives from Latin differre, through Old French and Middle English, and is related to the idea of carrying a process forward in time.

In finance and accounting, deferral refers to delaying recognition of income or expenses. Deferred revenue arises when money is collected before goods or services are delivered and is recognized as revenue later. Deferred tax accounts represent timing differences between accounting and tax rules, so that tax effects are recognized in future periods.

In computing, deferred means that a calculation or action is postponed until its result is required. Deferred evaluation, also called lazy evaluation, delays computation in languages and libraries. Deferred execution appears in asynchronous programming via promises (or futures) that resolve when the value becomes available.

In computer graphics, deferred shading is a rendering technique that postpones shading calculations to a later stage of the pipeline, enabling more efficient handling of light sources.

In everyday language, deferred gratification describes postponing a reward to achieve a greater benefit later. The term also appears in various policy or administrative contexts to denote postponement decisions, such as deferred action or deferred maintenance.