Latent

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: la=tent

CIDE DICTIONARY

Latent, a. [L. latens, -entis, p. pr. of latere to lie hid or concealed; cf. Gr. lanqa`nein, E. lethargy: cf. F. latent.].

•  Not visible or apparent; hidden; concealed; secret; dormant; as, latent springs of action.  [1913 Webster]

  "The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise."  [1913 Webster]
•  Existing but not presenting symptoms; dormant or developing; -- of disease, especially infectious diseases; as, the latent phase of an infection.  [PJC]

Latent buds (Bot.), buds which remain undeveloped or dormant for a long time, but may eventually grow. Latent heat (Physics), that quantity of heat which disappears or becomes concealed in a body while producing some change in it other than rise of temperature, as fusion, evaporation, or expansion, the quantity being constant for each particular body and for each species of change; the amount of heat required to produce a change of phase. -- Latent period. (a) (Med.) The regular time in which a disease is supposed to be existing without manifesting itself. (b) (Physiol.) One of the phases in a simple muscular contraction, in which invisible preparatory changes are taking place in the nerve and muscle. (c) (Biol.) One of those periods or resting stages in the development of the ovum, in which development is arrested prior to renewed activity.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Latent, adj.
1 concealed, dormant.
2 existing but not developed or manifest.

Idiom

latent heat Physics the heat required to convert a solid into a liquid or vapour, or a liquid into a vapour, without change of temperature. latent image Photog. an image not yet made visible by developing.

Derivative

latency n. latently adv.

Etymology

L latere latent- be hidden

THESAURUS

Latent

abeyant, abstruse, apathetic, arcane, beclouded, behind the curtain, behind the scenes, between the lines, blind, buried, cabalistic, camouflaged, cataleptic, catatonic, censored, classified, close, closed, clouded, concealed, covered, covert, cryptic, dark, dead, delitescent, disguised, dopey, dormant, dull, eclipsed, enigmatic, esoteric, flat, foul, groggy, heavy, hermetic, hibernating, hid, hidden, hush-hush, idle, immature, imperceptible, in a cloud, in a fog, in abeyance, in eclipse, in purdah, in suspense, in the wings, inactive, incommunicado, indiscernible, inert, insensible, invisible, languid, languorous, leaden, lifeless, logy, lurking, muffled, mysterious, mystic, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, occult, out of sight, passive, phlegmatic, possible, potential, quiescent, recondite, restricted, secluded, secluse, secret, sedentary, sequestered, sightless, slack, sleeping, sluggish, slumbering, smoldering, smothered, stagnant, standing, static, stifled, submerged, suppressed, suspended, tame, top secret, torpid, ulterior, unapparent, unaroused, unbeheld, unbeholdable, unbreatheable, under an eclipse, under cover, under house arrest, under security, under the surface, under wraps, underground, underlying, undiscernible, undisclosable, undisclosed, undivulgable, undivulged, unknown, unmanifested, unmatured, unnoticed, unobserved, unperceivable, unperceived, unrealized, unrevealable, unrevealed, unripe, unseeable, unseen, unspoken, untellable, untold, unutterable, unuttered, unviewed, unwhisperable, unwitnessed, veiled, viewless, virtual, wrapped in clouds

ROGET THESAURUS

Latent

Physical Inertness

N physical inertness, inertness, dullness, inertia, vis inertiae, inertion, inactivity, torpor, languor, quiescence, latency, inaction, passivity, mental inertness, sloth, inexcitability, irresolution, obstinacy, permanence, rare gas, paraffin, noble metal, unreactivity, inert, inactive, passive, torpid, sluggish, dull, heavy, flat, slack, tame, slow, blunt, unreactive, lifeless, dead, uninfluential, latent, dormant, smoldering, unexerted, inactively, in suspense, in abeyance.

Unintelligibility

N unintelligibility, incomprehensibility, imperspicuity, inconceivableness, vagueness, obscurity, ambiguity, doubtful meaning, uncertainty, perplexity, spinosity, obscurum per obscurius, mystification, latency, transcendentalism, paradox, oxymoron, riddle, enigma, puzzle, diagnus vindice nodus, sealed book, steganography, freemasonry, pons asinorum, asses' bridge, high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, jargon, unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable, incognizable, inexplicable, inscrutable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, insolvable, insoluble, impenetrable, illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical, enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret), indecipherable, obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery, opaque, dense, undiscernible, misty, hidden, latent, indefinite, garbled, perplexed, undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous, mysterious, mystic, mystical, acroamatic, acroamatical, metempirical, transcendental, occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed, inconceivable, inconceptible, searchless, above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension, beyond one's depth, unconceived, inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable, unpredictable, unforeseeable, it's Greek to me.

Implication

N latency, implication, latency, inexpression, hidden meaning, occult meaning, occultness, mystery, cabala, anagoge, silence, concealment, more than meets the eye, more than meets the ear, Delphic oracle, le dessous des cartes, undercurrent, implication, logical implication, logical consequence, entailment, allusion, insinuation, innuendo, adumbration, something rotten in the state of Denmark, snake in the grass, secret, darkness, invisibility, imperceptibility, latent, lurking, secret, occult, implied, dormant, abeyant, unapparent, unknown, unseen, in the background, invisible, indiscoverable, dark, impenetrable, unspied, unsuspected, unsaid, unwritten, unpublished, unbreathed, untalked of, untold &c, unsung, unexposed, unproclaimed, undisclosed, unexpressed, not expressed, tacit, undeveloped, solved, unexplained, untraced, undiscovered, untracked, unexplored, uninvented, indirect, crooked, inferential, by inference, by implication, implicit, constructive, allusive, covert, muffled, steganographic, understood, underhand, underground, delitescent, concealed, by a side wind, sub silentio, in the background, behind the scenes, behind one's back, on the tip of one's tongue, secretly, between the lines, thereby hangs a tale, tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus, where there's smoke, there's fire.