décalage

Décalage is a French noun designating an offset, gap, lag, or shift between two related phenomena. It can refer to a displacement in space, a delay in time, or a discrepancy between connected elements. The term is used across disciplines as well as in everyday language to describe any misalignment or lag affecting interpretation, measurement, or function.

Originating from the verb décaler, to move aside or out of line, décalage conveys the sense that something is not in its expected position. In common usage it appears in expressions such as décalage horaire, the time difference between time zones, and décalage temporel, a temporal lag between events or processes.

In science and technology, décalage denotes a time delay or phase offset between related quantities, such as signals in a communication system or measurements in an experiment. In engineering, it can describe the misalignment of components. In social sciences and humanities, it is used to characterize gaps between rhetoric and practice, or between policy aims and outcomes.

Because of its broad applicability, décalage carries no single technical definition; its precise meaning depends on context, but it generally implies some departure from alignment, synchronization, or expectation.