Word.ws English Dictionary

dormant

/ˈdɔːmənt/US/ˈdoɹmənt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

dormant adjective: inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.

dormant: inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended
Image: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

dormant (not comparable)

  1. Inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.
    • Grass goes dormant during the winter, waiting for spring before it grows again.
    • The bank account was dormant; there had been no transactions in months.
    Synonyms:
    quiescent
  2. In a sleeping posture; distinguished from couchant.
    • a lion dormant
  3. Leaning.

Noun

dormant (plural dormants)

  1. A crossbeam or joist.

dormant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dormant in Hindi

inactive, asleep, suspended
निष्क्रिय niṣkriya

dormant in Tamil

உறங்குகின்ற, செயலற்ற, வழக்கற்ற, உறங்கும், செயற்படாநிலை, செயலற்ற காலம்

dormant in Marathi

सुप्त

dormant in Urdu

کاہل, خوابیدہ, مخفی, نیم جان, سست
More languagesFewer languages
dormant in Bengali
সুপ্ত, নিস্তেজ
dormant in Malayalam
ഉറങ്ങിക്കിടക്കുന്ന, വികസിക്കാത്ത, അനങ്ങാത്ത, പ്രവർത്തിക്കാതിരിക്കുന്ന
dormant in Kannada
ಸುಪ್ತ supta
dormant in Odia
ସୁପ୍ତ
dormant in Indonesian
terbengkalai
dormant in Persian
خفته xofte, غنوده γonude

Examples of dormant in a sentence

  • This volcano is dormant but not extinct.
  • It is by lying dormant a long time, or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people.1777, Edmund Burke, A Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America; republished in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund...
  • It has been forced to lie dormant until a future moment of opportunity.1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 179:
  • Threshers reproduce via spores that lie dormant for millennia, yet are robust enough to survive prolonged periods in deep space and atmospheric re-entry.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Thresher Maws Codex entry:

All 31 example sentences with dormant

Synonyms of dormant

Antonyms

Forms of dormant

Adjective
alternative form (obsolete)dormaunt
alternative form (obsolete)dormient
Noun
pluraldormants

Origin of dormant

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dormiēns, present participle of dormiō (“to sleep”).

Words formed from dormant

Phrases with dormant

Questions about dormant

What does dormant mean?
Dormant means inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.
What is dormant in Hindi?
Dormant in Hindi is निष्क्रिय (niṣkriya). See Dormant meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dormant in a sentence?
This volcano is dormant but not extinct.
What part of speech is dormant?
Dormant can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce dormant?
Dormant is pronounced /ˈdɔːmənt/ (UK).

Words near dormant in the dictionary

  1. dormancies
  2. dormancy
  3. Dormand-Prince method
  4. Dormans
  5. Dormansland
  6. dormant
  7. Dormant Commerce Clause
  8. dormant volcano
  9. dormant volcanoes
  10. dormant volcanos
  11. dormant window

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dormant (page history and authors); dormant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dormant (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dormant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Dormant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dormant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಸುಪ್ತ (Kannada) (page history and authors); dormant (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

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Cite this entry: “dormant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dormant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.